Identifying independent risk factors for stroke in patients with atrial fibrillation is important for 2 main reasons: it sheds light on stroke pathogenesis associated with this common cardiac dysrhythmia, and it allows stratification of stroke risk for individual patients. Both are keys to prevention of the unduly large cardioembolic brain infarcts that complicate atrial fibrillation. Among non...

OBJECTIVES The aim of the study was to evaluate the effects of intravenous (IV) flecainide on defibrillation energy requirements in patients treated with low-energy internal atrial cardioversion. BACKGROUND Internal cardioversion of atrial fibrillation is becoming a more widely accepted therapy for acute episode termination and for implantable atrial defibrillators. METHODS Twenty-four pati...

Recognition that the initiation of atrial fibrillation often is dependent on arrhythmogenic foci within the pulmonary veins1 opened a new chapter in our understanding of the mechanisms of atrial fibrillation, which in turn has led to dramatic improvements in our ability to ablate atrial fibrillation. Based on experimental studies and clinical studies that used a variety of catheter and surgical...

OBJECTIVE To determine whether echocardiographic markers thromboembolic risk differ between patients with pure atrial flutter and patients with atrial flutter and intermittent atrial fibrillation. DESIGN Patients with atrial flutter were followed up prospectively for 12 months to identify intermittent atrial fibrillation. After the follow up period, transthoracic and multiplane transoesophage...

BACKGROUND Survival in colorectal cancer may correlate with the degree of systemic inflammatory response to the tumour. Atrial fibrillation may be regarded as an inflammatory complication. We aimed to determine if atrial fibrillation is a prognostic factor in colorectal cancer. PATIENTS AND METHODS A prospective colorectal cancer patient database was cross-referenced with the hospital clinica...

Atrial fibrillation is the commonest sustained cardiac rhythm abnormality, leading to substantial mortality and morbidity from stroke, thromboembolism and heart failure. Whilst the benefits of antithrombotic therapy in preventing stroke in atrial fibrillation are increasingly recognised, further developments in thromboprophylaxis are needed, especially since warfarin confers the inconvenience o...

BACKGROUND One quarter of strokes are of unknown cause, and subclinical atrial fibrillation may be a common etiologic factor. Pacemakers can detect subclinical episodes of rapid atrial rate, which correlate with electrocardiographically documented atrial fibrillation. We evaluated whether subclinical episodes of rapid atrial rate detected by implanted devices were associated with an increased r...

Atrial fibrillation significantly contributes to mortality and morbidity through increased risk of stroke, heart failure and myocardial infarction. Investigations of mechanisms responsible for the development and maintenance of atrial fibrillation have highlighted the importance of gap junctional remodeling. Connexins 40 and 43, the major atrial gap junctional proteins, undergo considerable alt...

BACKGROUND The goal of the report was to study the long-term incidence and the independent predictors for chronic atrial fibrillation and stroke in 507 paced patients with sick sinus syndrome, adjusting for differences in baseline clinical variables with multivariate analysis. METHODS AND RESULTS From 1980 to 1989, we implanted 376 dual-chamber, 19 atrial, and 112 ventricular pacemakers to tr...