Occurrence of death and stroke in patients in 47 countries 1 year after presenting with atrial fibrillation: a cohort study

Publication date: Available online 8 August 2016 Source:The Lancet Author(s): Jeff S Healey, Jonas Oldgren, Michael Ezekowitz, Jun Zhu, Prem Pais, Jia Wang, Patrick Commerford, Petr Jansky, Alvaro Avezum, Alben Sigamani, Albertino Demasceno, Paul Reilly, Alex Grinvalds, Juliet Nakamya, Akinyemi Aje, Wael Almahmeed, Andrew Moriarty, Lars Wallentin, Salim Yusuf, Stuart J Connolly Background Atrial fibrillation is an important cause of morbidity and mortality worldwide, but scant data are available for long-term outcomes in individuals outside North America or Europe, especially in primary care settings. Methods We did a cohort study using a prospective registry of patients in 47 countries who presented to a hospital emergency department with atrial fibrillation or atrial flutter as a primary or secondary diagnosis. 15 400 individuals were enrolled to determine the occurrence of death and strokes (the primary outcomes) in this cohort over eight geographical regions (North America, western Europe, and Australia; South America; eastern Europe; the Middle East and Mediterranean crescent; sub-Saharan Africa; India; China; and southeast Asia) 1 year after attending the emergency department. Patients from North America, western Europe, and Australia were used as the reference population, and compared with patients from the other seven regions Findings Between Dec 24, 2007, and Oct 21, 2011, we enrolled 15 400 individuals to the registry. Follow-up was compl...
Source: The Lancet - Category: Journals (General) Source Type: research