Atrial fibrillation was associated with a 31% rate of stroke or peripheral embolism in a retrospective cohort of 150 patients, with events typically occurring before the detection of the arrhythmia.
Observational (n=150)
Atrial fibrillation is associated with a high rate of severe, often unheralded thromboembolic events, frequently occurring before AF is clinically detected.
On retrospective review of records of 150 patients with atrial fibrillation (AF), 31% experienced a stroke or peripheral embolism. The AF was not associated with cardiac valvular disease in 80% of the 150 patients. Most of the cerebral infarcts were large, disabling, and unheralded by transient ischemic attack. The thromboembolism typically occurred in patients whose AF was undetected prior to the infarction. Half of the patients with an ischemic event suffered multiple events, with one fourth of the recurrences arising within two weeks.
Sherman et al. (1984) conducted an observational in Atrial fibrillation (n=150). Atrial fibrillation was associated with a 31% rate of stroke or peripheral embolism in a retrospective cohort of 150 patients, with events typically occurring before the detection of the arrhythmia.