Have you considered this sleeping burden of atrial fibrillation (AF)?

12236

This video has been sponsored by LivaNova.

AF is a growing epidemic affecting 33.5 million people today.1 Up to 91% of AF patients have co-morbidities.2 Among these co-morbidities, the guidelines highlight the need to pay attention to sleep apnea.3 Like asymptomatic AF, sleep apnea often shows no symptoms, but the combination of sleep apnea and atrial fibrillation is deadly: AF patients with sleep apnea have four- to six-fold higher risk of cardioembolic stroke compared to those without sleep apnea.4 AF patients with sleep apnea also have a higher recurrence of AF after ablation and a reduced response to anti-arrhythmic drugs.5,6

The guidelines state that the presence of sleep apnea should be considered in all patients with AF.3

How many of your AF patients might have sleep apnea?

 

REFERENCES

  1. Morin P D, Bernard L M, Madias C et al. The State of the Art: Atrial Fibrillation. Epidemiology, Prevention, and Treatment. Mayo Clin Proc. December 2016 ; 91(12):1778-1810
  2. Kim EJ, Yin X, Fontes J et al. Atrial fibrillation without comorbidities: Prevalence, incidence and prognosis (from the Framingham Heart Study). Am Heart J. 2016 Jul ; 177:138-144
  3. Kirchhof P, Benussi S, Kotecha D et al. 2016 ESC guidelines for the management of atrial fibrillation developed in collaboration with EACTS. Eur Heart J 2016 ; 37: 2893-2962
  4. Lipford C M, Flemming D K, Calvin D A et al. Associations between cardioembolic stroke and obstructive sleep apnea. SLEEP 2015 ; 38 (11):1699–1705.
  5. Monahan K, Brewster J, Wang L et al. Relation of the severity of obstructive sleep apnea in response to anti-arrhythmic drugs in patients with atrial fibrillation or atrial flutter. Am J Cardiol. 2012 August 1 ;110(3): 369–372
  6. Kanagala R, Murali S N, Friedman A P et al. Obstructive sleep apnea and the recurrence of atrialfibrillation. Circulation 2003 ; 107:2589-2594

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here