New Atrial Fibrillation Research from Yonsei University College of Medicine Discussed (All-Cause Death and Major Adverse Events in Atrial Fibrillation with Frailty: Observations from the Korea National Health Insurance Service Data): Heart Disorders and Diseases – Atrial Fibrillation

2024 MAR 19 (NewsRx) -- By a News Reporter-Staff News Editor at Health & Medicine Business Daily -- Researchers detail new data in atrial fibrillation. According to news originating from Seoul, South Korea, by NewsRx correspondents, research stated, “Atrial fibrillation (AF) is an indicator of frailty in old patients. This study aimed to investigate the effect of frailty on the use of oral anticoagulants (OAC) and clinical outcomes in a nationwide cohort of patients with new-onset AF.”

Our news correspondents obtained a quote from the research from Yonsei University College of Medicine: “This study included 451,368 participants without AF from the Korea National Health Insurance Service-Health Screening cohort between 2002 and 2009. The Hospital Frailty Risk Score was retrospectively calculated for each patient using all available International Classification of Disease 10th revision diagnostic codes. According to the aggregate score, patients were divided into two groups: the participants without frailty (<5 points) and the participants with frailty ( 5 points). The primary outcome was death from any cause, and the secondary outcomes were cardiovascular death, ischemic stroke, major bleeding, and heart failure admission. With up to 7.2 ± 1.5 years of follow-up, 11,953 participants (median age, 67 [interquartile range, 59.5-74.5] years; 7200 [60.2%] males) developed new-onset AF. Among the patients with AF, 3224 (26.9%) had frailty. Frailty was significantly associated with old age, female sex, polypharmacy, and other comorbidities. In patients with AF, frailty was negatively associated with OAC prescription after new-onset AF (p < 0.001). Compared to patients without frailty, patients with frailty had a significantly higher incidence and risk of all-cause death (hazard ratio [HR] 2.88, 95% confidence interval [CI] 2.65-3.14), cardiovascular death (HR 2.42, 95% CI 2.10-2.80), ischemic stroke (HR 2.25, 95% CI 2.02-2.51), major bleeding (HR 2.44, 95% CI 2.17-2.73), and heart failure admission (HR 1.29, 95% CI 1.09-1.52). In subgroup analysis, when compared to the non-OAC group, the risks associated with frailty were significantly lower in the OAC group for all-cause death, cardiovascular death, ischemic stroke, and heart failure admission.”

According to the news reporters, the research concluded: “Frailty was negatively associated with the use of OAC and was a predictor of poor prognosis owing to the association of frailty with death, thromboembolic events, bleeding, and heart failure admission. However, OAC use was associated with lower risks related to frailty for all-cause death and major adverse cardiovascular events in patients with AF.”

For more information on this research see: All-Cause Death and Major Adverse Events in Atrial Fibrillation with Frailty: Observations from the Korea National Health Insurance Service Data. Reviews in Cardiovascular Medicine, 2024,25(2):52. The publisher for Reviews in Cardiovascular Medicine is IMR Press.

A free version of this journal article is available at https://doi.org/10.31083/j.rcm2502052.

Our news editors report that more information may be obtained by contacting Jong Sung Park, Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, Severance Cardiovascular Hospital, Yonsei University College of Medicine, 03722 Seoul, South Korea. Additional authors for this research include Pil-Sung Yang, Daehoon Kim, Jung-Hoon Sung, Eunsun Jang, Hee Tae Yu, Tae-Hoon Kim, Hui-Nam Pak, Moon-Hyoung Lee, Boyoung Joung. Our reports deliver fact-based news of research and discoveries from around the world.