Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia encountered in the U.S. and the growing burden of AF has profound health implications due to the association of AF with an increased risk of stroke, heart failure, and mortality. AF is a significant risk factor for thromboembolic stroke; and also independently increases total mortality in patients with and without cardiovascular disease. Va...

BACKGROUND Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia and is associated with increased risk of stroke and death. Obesity is an independent risk factor for AF, but modifiers of this risk are not well known. We studied the roles of obesity, physical activity, and their interaction in conferring risk of incident AF. METHODS AND RESULTS The Women's Health Initiative (WHI) Obse...

BACKGROUND The incremental effects of risk factor combinations for atrial fibrillation (AF) and stroke are incompletely understood. We sought to quantify the risks of incident AF and stroke for combinations of established risk factors in a large US sample. METHODS AND RESULTS Patients with no evidence of AF or stroke in 2007 were stratified by combinations of the following risk factors: heart...

BACKGROUND There is growing evidence that indicates the presence of a prothrombotic state in atrial fibrillation (AF). However, the role of hemostatic markers in AF remains inconclusive. METHODS We conducted a meta-analysis of observational studies to evaluate the association between hemostatic markers and AF. A meta-regression was performed to explore potential sources of heterogeneity. RE...

BACKGROUND The presence of multiple arrhythmogenic sources may be associated with the perpetuation of atrial fibrillation (AF). In this study, we investigated the hypothesis that multiple foci might be involved in the development of AF persistency. METHODS AND RESULTS Two hundred fourteen consecutive patients with AF undergoing catheter ablation were enrolled in this study. The location of th...

Separation of some biogenic amines via RP-HPLC using mixed micellar mobile phase was investigated. The compounds were derivatized before hand by dansyl chloride as a chromophoric reagent. Appropriate conditions for separation, were determined by studying factors such as temperature, type and percentage of organic modifier, concentration of surfactants (SDS and Brij-35) and the pH of the mob...

introduction: due to the complexity of facial asy-mmetry, the diagnosis of different aspects of asymmetry via conventional radiographs is not precise. in this study, we investigated findings of facial asymmetry by using cone- beam computed tomography (cbct) images. materials and methods: in this descriptive study, we evaluated cbct findings of 18 patients i.e. a group of 14 females and 4 males ...

OBJECTIVE Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained arrhythmia and is associated with increased morbidity and mortality. Atrial fibrosis augments recurrence rate following AF catheter ablation. Osteopontin is a multifunctional molecule involved in several pathophysiological pathways, including fibrosis. Presently described is investigation of relationship between serum osteopontin l...

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most prevalent sustained arrhythmia. As the most important risk factor for embolic stroke, AF is associated with a high morbidity and mortality. Despite decades of research, successful (pharmacological and interventional) ‘ablation’ of the arrhythmia remains challenging. AF is characterized by a diverse aetiology, including heart failure, hypertension, and valvul...

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained arrhythmia encountered in clinical practice, and it places a substantial burden on the health care system. Despite improvements in our understanding of AF pathophysiology, we have yet to develop targeted preventive therapies. Recently, numerous biological markers have been identified to aid in the prediction of future AF events. Subclinical ...