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Advisor(s)
Abstract(s)
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most prevalent cardiac arrhythmia in the developed world and is associated with impaired quality of life, a five-fold higher risk of stroke, a three-fold increased incidence of heart failure, and a nearly two-fold higher risk of hospitalization and overall mortality. AF is known to be exponentially more prevalent among the elderly, but is frequently asymptomatic and therefore undiagnosed. This results in suboptimal rates of anticoagulation and effective control of other cardiovascular risk factors. The clinical and economic burden posed by AF is therefore substantial, and this scenario is set to worsen in the coming years,1 mainly driven by population aging, and its association with various comorbidities.
In FAMA, a large-scale epidemiological study conducted in 2009 in Portugal, the prevalence of AF among individuals aged over 40 years was estimated to be 2.5%. The SAFIRA study estimated a 9.0% prevalence in patients aged over 65 years, as did another Portuguese study.
Description
© 2023 Sociedade Portuguesa de Cardiologia. Published by Elsevier España, S.L.U. This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).
Keywords
Pedagogical Context
Citation
Rev Port Cardiol. 2024 Feb;43(2):91-93
Publisher
Elsevier