Atrial Fibrillation Burden: Moving Beyond Atrial Fibrillation as a Binary Entity: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association.

Atrial Fibrillation Burden: Moving Beyond Atrial Fibrillation as a Binary Entity: A Scientific Statement From the American Heart Association. Circulation. 2018 Apr 16;: Authors: Chen LY, Chung MK, Allen LA, Ezekowitz M, Furie KL, McCabe P, Noseworthy PA, Perez MV, Turakhia MP, American Heart Association Council on Clinical Cardiology; Council on Cardiovascular and Stroke Nursing; Council on Quality of Care and Outcomes Research; and Stroke Council Abstract Our understanding of the risk factors and complications of atrial fibrillation (AF) is based mostly on studies that have evaluated AF in a binary fashion (present or absent) and have not investigated AF burden. This scientific statement discusses the published literature and knowledge gaps related to methods of defining and measuring AF burden, the relationship of AF burden to cardiovascular and neurological outcomes, and the effect of lifestyle and risk factor modification on AF burden. Many studies examine outcomes by AF burden classified by AF type (paroxysmal versus nonparoxysmal); however, quantitatively, AF burden can be defined by longest duration, number of AF episodes during a monitoring period, and the proportion of time an individual is in AF during a monitoring period (expressed as a percentage). Current guidelines make identical recommendations for anticoagulation regardless of AF pattern or burden; however, a review of recent evidence suggests that higher AF burden is...
Source: Circulation - Category: Cardiology Authors: Tags: Circulation Source Type: research