BACKGROUND Atrial fibrillation (AF) can occur even after the correction of mitral valve (MV) pathology in patients who have pre-operative sinus rhythm and undergo MV surgery. However, the factors associated with the occurrence of AF after MV surgery are still unclear. The aim of this retrospective study was to investigate the factors determining the occurrence of permanent AF after MV surgery i...

OBJECTIVES The purpose of this study was to analyze the effect of beta blockade on outcome in patients with heart failure (HF) and atrial fibrillation (AF). BACKGROUND Beta-blockers are widely used in patients with HF and AF. Recommendation in current HF guidelines, however, is based on populations in which the most patients had sinus rhythm. Whether beta-blockers are as useful in AF is uncer...

BACKGROUND To investigate the outcome of patients in atrial fibrillation (AF) following mitral valve repair, clinical and echocardiographic follow-up was undertaken in 400 consecutive patients who underwent mitral valvuloplasty from 1987 to 1999. METHODS AND RESULTS The main indications for surgery were degenerative (81.4%), endocarditis (7.1%), rheumatic (6.6%), ischemic (4.6%), and traumati...

background: about half of all patients who undergo mitral valve surgery suffer from atrial fibrillation (af). cox described the surgical cut-and-sew maze procedure, which is an effective surgical method but has some complications. this study was designed to evaluate the efficacy of a substitution method of radiofrequency ablation (rfa) for patients undergoing mitral valve surgery with af. metho...

BACKGROUND Factors associated with the development of atrial fibrillation (AF) in general population have been described, but it is still unknown whether the same risk factors apply to heart failure (HF) patients. The aim of this study was to identify clinical factors related to various forms of AF in HF patients. METHODS The clinical and echocardiographic characteristics were assessed in 155...

Hypertension has a major impact on the pathogenesis, management, and prognosis of atrial fibrillation (AF; Figure). Common consequences of hypertension, such as left ventricular (LV) hypertrophy, kidney dysfunction, cardiovascular, and cerebrovascular disorders, are recognized risk factors for AF occurrence and development of its complications. Hypertension is very common in AF patients (Figure...

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is generally considered a progressive disease, typically evolving from paroxysmal through persistent to 'permanent' forms, a process attributed to electrical and structural remodelling related to both the underlying disease and AF itself. Medical treatment has yet to demonstrate clinical efficacy in preventing progression. Large clinical trials performed to date have fa...

BACKGROUND The 2 fundamental approaches to the management of atrial fibrillation (AF) are reestablishing and maintaining sinus rhythm (rhythm control) and controlling ventricular rate with atrioventricular node blocking agents (rate control). We performed a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials comparing these strategies in patients with AF to add precision to the relative merits of bot...

BACKGROUND Diagnosing atrial fibrillation (AF) before ischemic stroke occurs is a priority for stroke prevention in AF. Smartphone camera-based photoplethysmographic (PPG) pulse waveform measurement discriminates between different heart rhythms, but its ability to diagnose AF in real-world situations has not been adequately investigated. We sought to assess the diagnostic performance of a stand...

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained arrhythmia encountered by clinicians. The prevalence of AF increases with age, and the elderly are the fastest growing subset of the population. It has been estimated that there will be 12 million patients with AF in the United States within the next several decades.1,2 AF may present in a wide variety of clinical conditions. The optimal man...