Lone atrial fibrillation: Prognostic differences between paroxysmal and chronic forms after 10 years of follow-up☆,☆☆
Section snippets
Methods
Between 1966 and 1995, we examined 7523 patients with atrial fibrillation referred by their family physicians in the outpatient clinic of the Department of Cardiology of Ospedale Maggiore, Trieste, Italy. The study base consisted of 157 patients identified as having idiopathic or lone atrial fibrillation. On the basis of the clinical history and serial electrocardiographic patterns, the arrhythmia was categorized as chronic (when it appeared on more than 1 routine periodic examination and/or
Results
During the study period, 145 patients (118 male, 81.4%) were identified as having had LAF. At the time of first diagnosis, the isolated or recurrent form was present in 125 (86.2%) patients and the chronic form in 20 (15.8%). At the conclusion of the study, the paroxysmal form had become chronic in 29 (23%) patients, after a mean period of 85.9 ± 87.2 months (range 1 to 312 months) after the first paroxysmal episode.
At the end of the follow-up period, 96 (66.3%) had the paroxysmal form and 49
Discussion
Although our study was not population based, there is no other facility in the Trieste area for outpatients except our cardiovascular clinic; thus the results may be considered representative of the whole population. We have found that LAF represents a significant proportion (1.9%) of atrial fibrillation in our outpatient clinic.
As mentioned in the introduction, the estimation of the prevalence and incidence of LAF as well as direct comparison of various studies is difficult because of the
Acknowledgements
We thank Marie Luise Artero, MD, for valuable assistance in the preparation of the manuscript.
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2014, Journal of the American College of CardiologyCitation Excerpt :Using a more stringent definition of lone AF in the Euro Heart Survey, the prevalence of lone AF fell to 3% (22). In hospital-based studies, the prevalence of lone AF varies from 2% to 45%, depending again on the patient characteristics included (23–26). It appears that a larger proportion of patients with paroxysmal AF is diagnosed with lone AF compared to patients in permanent AF, among whom the proportion of lone AF is relatively low (27).
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Reprint requests: Sabino Scardi, MD, Cardiovascular Center, Ospedale Maggiore, via Pietà 19, 34100 Trieste, Italy.
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0002-8703/99/$8.00 + 0 4/1/92265