Articles tagged ‘atrial fibrillation’

Rivaroxaban (Xarelto®) has become the first once-daily, fixed-dose preventative treatment for UK patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation (AF) at risk of stroke, without the need for routine coagulation monitoring.

Working at a large University Teaching Hospital we are not unfamiliar to specialist cardiology clinics two or three times weekly. As many of you will have experienced on occasion we often encounter a patient history and apparent presenting complaint that we can not precisely and cleverly explain.

Ambulatory external electrocardiogram (AECG) monitoring technology plays an important role in patients with known atrial fibrillation (AF) to guide ventricular rate control and anticoagulation therapy, and assess the efficacy of antiarrhythmic drug therapy and/or ablation procedures, according to a review published recently in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.¹

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is more common in patients diagnosed with coeliac disease (CD), though the excess risk is small, according to a study¹ in a large cohort of patients with biopsy-verified CD published recently in the European Heart Journal.

Despite significant improvements in stroke prevention over the past decade, and a fall in incidence and deaths, UK doctors are still undertreating atrial fibrillation (AF), according to research¹ published recently in BMJ Open.



Aspirin increases the risk of bleeding without decreasing the risk of stroke/thromboembolism sufficiently in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF), according to a study¹ published recently in Thrombosis and Haemostasis.

Stringency of heart rate control does not influence quality of life (QOL) for patients with permanent atrial fibrillation (AF), according to a study¹ published recently in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology.

The European Medicines Agency’s (EMA) Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) has recommended restricting the use of Multaq. The anti-arrhythmic medicine should only be prescribed for maintaining heart rhythm in patients with paroxysmal or persistent atrial fibrillation (AF) for the maintenance of sinus rhythm after successful cardioversion, they say.

Apixaban was shown to be superior to warfarin for the reduction of stroke or systemic embolism with significantly less major bleeding in patients with atrial fibrillation in the Phase 3 ARISTOTLE trial, according to results presented during a packed Hot Line session at the 2011 European Society of Cardiology Congress in Paris, and published simultaneously in The New England Journal of Medicine.¹

The AF AWARE (Atrial Fibrillation Awareness And Risk Education) campaign, announced the launch of the Atrial Fibrillation in Primary Care (AFIP) tool, at the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) Congress 2011 in Paris. It has been developed to help primary care physicians (PCPs) with early diagnosis and optimal management of patients with atrial fibrillation (AF).