Citation : David Spragg,Hugh Calkins.Catheter Ablation for AF: Past, Present, and Future .JAFIB.2008 Dec;Volume 1 Issue(4): 221-229.
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained tachyarrhythmia encountered by physicians. The prevalence of AF in patients over the age of 65 is approximately 6%, and approaches 10% in patients over the age of 85. As the median age of the population in the United States becomes older, the epidemiologic burden of AF in this country will likely increase. Currently approximately 2.2 million people in the United States have AF. AF, while typically not a life-threatening arrhythmia per se, is associated with increased risk of stroke, heart failure, and increased mortality. The stroke risk in patients with AF, for instance, is increased between 5- and 7-fold compared to similar patients without AF.
1 comment:
I appreciate JAFIB posting the patient summaries.
But this summary seems unrelated to the title of the article, it says nothing about ablation.
Also, it repeats the often read "AF...is associated with increased risk of stroke, heart failure, and increased mortality." Is it not the case that these increased risks are in people with untreated afib? Repeating this statistic without that qualification is unnecessarily frightening to laypeople with afib.
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