Atrial fibrillation (AF) is an important and independent risk factor for stroke, particularly in elderly people. The efficacy of treatment with warfarin and aspirin in primary and secondary stroke prevention in AF has been demonstrated in randomized clinical trials. In a demographic study, we examined the prevalence of AF in patients registered with a general practice in the North East of Engla...

UNLABELLED Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most frequent clinical arrhythmia. Atrial fibrosis is an important factor in initiating and maintaining AF. However, the collagen turnover and its regulation in AF has not been completely elucidated. We tested the hypothesis that the extracellular matrix changes are more severe in patients with permanent AF in comparison with those in patients in sinus...

BACKGROUND Although the link between sleep-disordered breathing (SDB) and atrial fibrillation (AF) has been reported, a population-based longitudinal cohort study was lacking. The goal of the present study was to investigate the AF risk carried by SDB, using the National Health Insurance Research Database in Taiwan. METHODS AND RESULTS: From 2000 to 2001, a total of 579,521 patients who had no ...

The occurrence of atrial fibrillation (AF) is associated with a substantial increase in risk of death, stroke, and heart failure. The increasing incidence of the arrhythmia in the general population further underscores its public health relevance. Reasons for the increasing AF incidence include the advancing age of the population and a better survival among individuals with structural heart dis...

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most potent common risk factor for ischemic stroke. The number of Americans with nonvalvular AF is expected to increase markedly over the next several decades, making AF-related stroke an important public health concern. Given the individual and societal burden associated with AF-related stroke, efforts to identify and implement efficacious and acceptably safe th...

Background Stroke is the most serious complication of atrial fibrillation (AF). Of the estimated 600,000 ischemic strokes that occur each year in the United States, 15-20 percent are thought to be secondary to AF. Blood stasis is a key factor responsible for thrombus formation in the left atrium (LA). Studies utilizing transesophageal echocardiography have shown that peak left atrial appendage ...

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most frequent cardiac arrhythmia and is a major cause of morbidity and mortality. Previous studies have established genetic defects as a risk factor for AF in a minority of patients. However, AF is of substantial genetic heterogeneity and the molecular determinants for AF in a majority of cases remain unclear. In th...

Atrial conduction properties have been shown to differ among animal atrial fibrillation (AF) models of rapid atrial pacing (RAP), chronic mitral regurgitation (MR), and control. We hypothesized that these conduction differences would continue with the onset of AF, which would affect AF spatiotemporal organization, resulting in model-specific characteristics of AF. With frequency domain analysis...

Left atrial size is independently related to cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, and atrial fibrillation (AF) is strongly associated with atrial size. Our aims were to report atrial and ventricular dimensions in patients with AF evaluated with magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), and to assess the inter-study reproducibility of the measurements. Nineteen healthy volunteers, 19 patients with pe...

Several of the cellular alterations involved in atrial fibrillation (AF) may be linked to mitochondrial function and altered microRNA (miR) expression. A majority of studies on human myocardium involve right atrial (RA) tissue only. There are indications that AF may affect the two atria differentially. This study aimed to compare interatrial differences in mitochondrial respiration and miR expr...