Both cardiac and non-cardiac comorbidities tied to adverse outcomes in atrial fibrillation: Study

UK: In a recent study in the journal BMC Medicine, the researchers identified three main clusters in European atrial fibrillation (AF) patients. The clusters were -- older patients with non-cardiac comorbidities, older patients with cardiac comorbidities, and a younger, low-risk group. Both cardiac and non-cardiac comorbidities were associated with a greater risk of adverse outcomes.

Atrial fibrillation is a cardiovascular condition which has a multifactorial origin, with the involvement of several cardiovascular (CV) and non-CV risk factors and comorbidities contributing significantly to the development of incident AF. Epidemiological studies in AF show that clinical complexity increase the risk of major adverse outcomes. Marco Proietti, University of Liverpool and Liverpool Heart & Chest Hospital, Liverpool, UK, and colleagues aimed to describe European AF patients' clinical phenotypes and analyse the differential clinical course.

For this purpose, the researchers performed a hierarchical cluster analysis based on Ward's Method and Squared Euclidean Distance using 22 clinical binary variables, identifying the optimal number of clusters. They also investigated differences in nvestigated differences in clinical management, use of healthcare resources and outcomes in a cohort of European AF patients from a Europe-wide observational registry. A total of 9363 were available for this analysis.