BACKGROUND We examined all-cause mortality and long-term thromboembolic risk (ischemic stroke, transient ischemic attack, systemic thromboembolism) in patients with and without familial atrial fibrillation (AF). METHODS AND RESULTS Using Danish nationwide registry data, we identified all patients diagnosed with AF (1995-2012) and divided them into those with familial AF (having a first-degree...

INTRODUCTION Recurrent atrial fibrillation (AF) after ablation is associated with reconnection of initially isolated pulmonary vein (PV) trigger sites. Substrates are often targeted in addition to PVI, but it is unclear how substrates progress over time. We studied if substrates in recurrent AF are conserved or have developed de novo from pre-ablation AF. METHODS AND RESULTS Of 137 patients u...

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES Atrial fibrillation (AF) is one of the most common arrhythmias. It is classified according to its presentation as either paroxysmal, persistent or permanent. The presence of this arrhythmia has been associated with a decrease in patients' health-related quality of life (HRQoL). The Atrial Fibrillation-Quality of Life (AF-QoL) questionnaire, which is specifically for ...

CONTEXT Although the heritability of atrial fibrillation (AF) is established, the contribution of familial AF to predicting new-onset AF remains unknown. OBJECTIVE To determine whether familial occurrence of AF is associated with new-onset AF beyond established risk factors. DESIGN, SETTING, AND PARTICIPANTS The Framingham Heart Study, a prospective community-based cohort study started in 1...

BACKGROUND Inducibility of atrial fibrillation (AF) after pulmonary vein isolation has been used to guide additional left atrial ablation in paroxysmal AF. The sensitivity and specificity of AF induction in this setting remains uncertain. We examined the incidence and characteristics of inducible AF in patients without structural heart disease or clinical AF and the effect of different inductio...

The discovery of the potent mutagenicity of AF-2, which was once used in Japan as a food preservative, has exerted a great influence not only on screening procedures for carcinogenic compounds but also on legislative approaches to mutagenic substances. It promoted the synthesis of exceedingly sensitive and reliable tester strains in Salmonella and supported the hypothesis of a common mechanism ...

In this issue of the Netherlands Heart Journal, Gal et al. provide an analysis of patients included in the On-TIME II study, in which patients undergoing primary percutaneous coronary intervention for ST-elevation MI (STEMI) were randomly assigned to tirofiban or placebo treatment on top of usual medical treatment [7, 8]. The authors confirm the relation between AF and mortality in this setting...

BACKGROUND Heart failure (HF) and atrial fibrillation (AF) share common risk factors and often coexist. The combination of HF and AF may carry a worse prognosis than either condition alone; however, the magnitude of this risk remains controversial and it is not known whether the timing of AF influences the risk of death. METHODS AND RESULTS We determined the risk of all-cause mortality in rel...

Who gets AF? The risk of developing AF rises with age. At the age of 40, this risk of developing AF rises to one in four people and the risk continues to increase with age.5 What are the symptoms of AF? People with AF often experience distressing symptoms including palpitations, chest pain, breathlessness, fatigue or light-headedness. However, some people don’t even feel anything when they have...