Native Cardio is developing innovative solutions for AFIB: This article provides insight into new important findings related to AFIB

After an atrial fibrillation (AF) diagnosis, roughly two out of every five patients will develop heart failure, making it a much more frequent complication than stroke, according to a nationwide study from Denmark. Moreover, the burden of heart failure in the AF population has remained constant over the past two decades while lifetime risks of stroke have slightly declined during the direct oral anticoagulant (DOAC) era, Nicklas Vinter, MD, PhD (Aalborg University, Denmark), and colleagues report in a study published online in the BMJ this week. Patients with AF “are often told that the main risk is stroke after the diagnosis, but A-fib is also associated with other complications—for instance, heart failure or myocardial infarction,” Vinter told TCTMD, noting that his team conducted the study to better understand the long-term risks of those complications and how they might have changed over time. He said the study could not capture the severity of heart failure, stroke, or other complications, so future research would be required to delve into the clinical impacts, but added that it’s known that patients who have a double diagnosis of heart failure and AF have a very high risk of mortality. “So I think this study underlines . . . that we need to focus even more on the prevention of heart failure, but still we need to improve prevention of stroke as well,” Vinter said, pointing out that the lifetime risk of stroke is still around 20%.*

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