One‑year follow‑up of the Polish subset of the RecordAF registry of patients with newly diagnosed atrial fibrillation

INTRODUCTION: Data on real-life management of atrial fibrillation (AF) in Poland is limited. OBJECTIVES: To present data on 1-year follow-up of patients from Poland included in a worldwide registry on patients with AF (RecordAF). PATIENTS AND METHODS: Patients with recent onset AF were included (n=303). Treatment strategy (rhythm or rate control) was noted at baseline. Therapeutic success (control of AF, with no incidence of cardiovascular events and no switch between the strategies) was assessed after one year. RESULTS: Data from 289 patients were assessable. A rhythm control strategy was noted in 70% of patients. Rhythm control patients received anti-thrombotic therapy less frequently than rate control patients (90.4% vs. 97.6%) but more often received class I (19.8% vs. 4.8%) and class III (20.8% vs. 4.8%) antiarrhythmic drugs (p<0.05 for all comparisons). Therapeutic success was noted in 71.5% of rhythm control patients vs. 29.1% of rate control patients (p<0.0001), a result driven by control of AF (89.3% in the rhythm control group vs. 56.1% in the rate control group, p<0.0001). The rate of cardiovascular events was similar in both groups (20.6% of all patients). Progression to permanent AF occurred in 5.9% of rhythm control patients vs. 73.2% of rate control patients (p<0.001). CONCLUSIONS: Most of the patients received thromboembolic prevention and the majority was assigned to rhythm control. Despite infrequent use of anti-arrhythmic drugs, a rhythm control strategy was associated with better AF control and slower progression but not with lower rate of cardiovascular events in patients with recent-onset AF in Poland.