Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2017 Oct;71(5):316-319.
doi: 10.5455/medarh.2017.71.316-319.

The Cumulative Incidence of Stroke, Myocardial infarction, Heart Failure and Sudden Cardiac Death in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation

Nabil Naser  1 , Mehmed Kulic  2 , Mirza Dilic  3 , Alen Dzubur  3 , Azra Durak  3 , Esad Pepic  4 , Elnur Smajic  5 , Zumreta Kusljugic  5
Affiliations

The Cumulative Incidence of Stroke, Myocardial infarction, Heart Failure and Sudden Cardiac Death in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation

Nabil Naser et al. Med Arch. 2017 Oct.

Abstract

Introduction: Atrial fibrillation represents the most common cardiac arrhythmia in clinical practice. By year 2030, 14-17 million AF patients are anticipated in the European Union. Atrial fibrillation remains one of the major causes of stroke, heart failure, sudden death all over the world.

Research objectives: The objective of our study is to determine the cardiac and cerebrovascular events (myocardial infarction, heart failure, stroke, sudden cardiac death) and their cumulative incidence during 11 years follow up period.

Patients and methods: This study includes 2352 ambulant and hospitalized patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) who were enrolled during the follow up period. All patients underwent clinical evaluation in order to determine cardiac and cerebrovascular events (myocardial infarction, heart failure, stroke, sudden cardiac death) and their cumulative incidence.

Results: The results of cumulative incidence for sudden cardiac death was 1.71%, for stroke 2.56%, for myocardial infarction 1.20% and for heart failure was 5.73%. In our study the age-adjusted incidence and prevalence of AF are slightly lower in women. The study shows that the risk of death is higher in females than in males with AF.

Conclusion: Despite good progress in the management of patients with atrial fibrillation (AF), this arrhythmia remains one of the major causes of stroke, heart failure, sudden death. Effective treatment of patients with atrial fibrillation includes not only rate control, rhythm control, and prevention of stroke, but also management of cardiovascular risk factors and concomitant diseases.

Keywords: Atrial fibrillation; Heart failure; Myocardial infarction; Stroke; Sudden death.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

• Conflict of interest: none declared.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
The cumulative incidence of stroke, MI, HF and SD during the follow up period
See this image and copyright information in PMC

References

    1. Masic I, Dilic M, Raljevic E, Vulic D, Mott D. Trends in Cardiovascular Diseases in Bosnia and Herzegovina and Perspectives with HeartScore Programme. Med Arh. 2010;64(5):260–3. - PubMed
    1. Chugh SS, Havmoeller R, Narayanan K, Singh D, Rienstra M, Benjamin EJ, Gillum RF, Kim YH, McAnulty JH, Jr, Zheng ZJ, Forouzanfar MH, Naghavi M, Mensah GA, Ezzati M, Murray CJ. Worldwide epidemiology of atrial fibrillation: a Global Burden of Disease 2010 Study. Circulation. 2014;129:837–47. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Kirchhof P, Benussi S, Kotecha D, Ahlsson A, Atar D, et al. 2016 ESC Guidelines for the management of atrial fibrillation developed in collaboration with EACTS. European Heart Journal. 2016;37:2893–2962. - PubMed
    1. Townsend N, Wilson L, Bhatnagar P, Wickramasinghe K, Rayner M, Nichols M. Cardiovascular disease in Europe: epidemiological update 2016. European Heart Journal. 2016;37:3232–45. - PubMed
    1. Nguyen TN, Hilmer SN, Cumming RG. Review of epidemiology and management of atrial fibrillation in developing countries. Int J Cardiol. 2013;167:2412–20. - PubMed

LinkOut - more resources