What is the nature and clinical role of inflammation and C-reactive protein in atrial fibrillation?
This review highlights the complex, potentially bidirectional relationship between inflammation, C-reactive protein levels, and the pathogenesis of atrial fibrillation.
Atrial fibrillation is associated with substantial morbidity and mortality rates. The incompletely understood pathogenesis of this cardiac dysrhythmia makes it difficult to improve approaches to primary and secondary prevention. Evidence has accumulated in regard to a relationship between inflammation and atrial fibrillation. Investigators have correlated the dysrhythmia with myocarditis, pericardiotomy, and C-reactive protein levels, suggesting that inflammation causes atrial fibrillation or participates in its onset and continuation. Conversely, other investigators suggest that atrial fibrillation induces an inflammatory response. In this review, we summarize and critically discuss the nature and clinical role of inflammation and C-reactive protein in atrial fibrillation.
Galea et al. (Wed,) studied this question.