Demographic, Clinical, and Angiographic Characteristics of Atrial
Fibrillation Patients Suffering from De Novo Acute Myocardial Infarction
Abstract
Abstract Aim: The prevalence of atrial fibrillation (AF) in patients
with myocardial infarction (MI) ranges widely and has been reported to
be as high as 21%. However, the demographic, clinical, and angiographic
characteristics of AF patients with de novo MI is unclear. The aim of
this study was to investigate the prevalence of patients presenting with
de novo MI with AF. Methods: The study was performed as a sub-study of
the MINOCA-TR (Myocardial Infarction with Non-obstructive Coronary
Arteries in Turkish Population) Registry, a multicenter,
cross-sectional, observational, all-comer registry. MI patients without
a known history of stable coronary artery disease and/or prior coronary
revascularization were enrolled in the study. Patients were divided into
AF and Non-AF groups according to their presenting cardiac rhythm.
Results: A total of 1793 patients were screened and 1626 were included
in the study. Mean age was 61.5 (12.5) years. 70.7% of patients were
men. Prevalence of AF was 3.1% (51 patients). AF patients were older
[73.4 (9.4) vs. 61.0 (12.4) years, p<0.001] than non-AF
patients. The proportion of women to men in the AF group was also higher
than in the non-AF group (43.1% vs. 28.7%, p=0.027). Dramatically, the
minority of patients were previously diagnosed with AF (14 patients,
27.4%) and only 1 out of every 5 AF patients (10 patients, 19.6%) was
using oral anticoagulants (OAC). Conclusions: AF prevalence in patients
presenting with de novo MI was lower than reported in previous studies.
The majority of AF patients did not have any knowledge of their
arrhythmia and were not undergoing OAC therapy at admission, emphasizing
the vital role of successful diagnostic strategies, patient education,
and implementations for guideline adaptation.