Abstract
Atrial fibrillation: A kiss of death?
Highlights
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is frequently encountered in acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) as well as in elderly patients, and is the most common cardiac arrhythmia in general
As Martínez-Sellés and co-workers nicely demonstrate in their small series of very old (≥89 years) patients with STEMI in the current issue of the Netherlands Heart Journal, it means bad news, especially if the patient was in sinus rhythm before [2]
About 70 % of the patients did not receive reperfusion therapy and only 20 % underwent primary angioplasty, which means that the studied nonagenarians are at extreme risk of dying after their STEMI if they develop AF
Summary
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is frequently encountered in acute ST-elevation myocardial infarction (STEMI) as well as in elderly patients, and is the most common cardiac arrhythmia in general. This is in accordance with the findings of another study, where age was an independent variable (together with haemodynamic state) for the occurrence of new-onset AF after primary angioplasty, and was associated with increased mortality [3].
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