Concerns about the European society of cardiology atrial fibrillation guidelines

With great interest we read the recent European Society of Cardiology (ESC) guidelines for the Management of Atrial Fibrillation.1 We are, however, concerned about the high number of conflicts of interest (COIs) of the authors as listed in theTable1. Of 17 authors only 2 (12%) indicated no COI. The chairperson of the task force had the second most COIs (n = 30). The mean number of COIs of all authors indicating any COI was 12.3. In the previous 2010 guidelines on atrial fibrillation 8 of 25 authors (32%) had no COI. The mean number of COIs of the authors indicating any COI was 8.2.2Table 1Declarations of interest as reported to the ESC by the experts covering the period of the Guidelines production, from Task Force creation to publication1NameA —direct personal paymentB—payment to your institutionD—research funding (departmental)E—research funding (personal)Sum of COIsAnders10304Atar1131015Benussi32005Casadei00000Castella40509Diener2205027Heidbuchel1420016Hendriks30003Hindricks087015Kirchhof19011030Kotecha30115Manolis00000Oldgren26 008Popescu10001Schotten60309Van Putte20103Vardas17213032
Source: Europace - Category: Cardiology Source Type: research