Research Paper Volume 13, Issue 13 pp 17024—17037
Prevalence and predictors of subclinical atrial fibrillation in hospitalized older adults
- 1 Internal Medicine and Geriatrics, IRCCS INRCA, Ancona, Italy
- 2 Department of Clinical and Molecular Sciences, University “Politecnica delle Marche”, Ancona, Italy
- 3 Cardiology Unit, IRCCS INRCA, Ancona, Italy
Received: March 5, 2021 Accepted: June 22, 2021 Published: July 1, 2021
https://doi.org/10.18632/aging.203270How to Cite
Copyright: © 2021 Spannella et al. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY 3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited.
Abstract
Subclinical atrial fibrillation (SCAF) is associated with an increased risk of clinical AF, major cardiovascular events and death. Short-term evidence on SCAF in older populations is scarce, especially in the hospital setting. We performed a cross-sectional study on 60 multimorbid older consecutive patients (aged 80+) admitted to an Internal Medicine and Geriatrics Unit for acute medical diseases with no history of AF, in order to investigate prevalence and predictors of SCAF. Portable ECG monitoring was placed on admission and ECG recording lasted for 5 days. Mean age: 85.7±4.9 years. Female prevalence: 58.3%. High burden of comorbidities: 87.9%. All enrolled patients had CHA2DS2-VASc score ≥3. SCAF was detected in 16 patients (26.7%) and 11 patients (18.4%) had at least a SCAF episode lasting 6 minutes or longer. No clinical, laboratory and echocardiographic parameters predicted SCAF. Patients with ≥2004 supraventricular ectopic beats/24h (SVEBs/24h) had a 6-fold higher prevalence of SCAF than patients with <411 SVEBs/24h (p=0.038). Time to first SCAF episode was within 3 days of ECG recording in all enrolled patients. SCAF is highly prevalent in older adults hospitalized for acute diseases. This finding may affect clinical management and prognosis. Our study could foster larger multicenter studies in similar settings.
Abbreviations
ABG: arterial blood gas; ADL: activities of daily living; AF: atrial fibrillation; APBs: atrial premature beats; BMI: body mass index; BSA: body surface area; COPD: chronic obstructive pulmonary disease; CV: cardiovascular; ECG: electrocardiogram; eGFR: estimated glomerular filtration rate; ESC: European Society of Cardiology; GIC: geriatric index of co-morbidity; HGB: hemoglobin; IAB: interatrial block; LAVI: left atrial volume index; LVEF: left ventricular ejection fraction; LVH: left ventricular hypertrophy; LVMI: left ventricular mass indexed; HF: heart failure; NT-proBNP: N-terminal pro-B-type natriuretic peptide; PAPs: systolic pulmonary artery pressure; SCAF: subclinical atrial fibrillation; SVEBs: supraventricular ectopic beats; TAPSE: tricuspid annular plane excursion; VEBs: ventricular ectopic beats; WBC: white blood cell count.