Abstract
BackgroundAtrial fibrillation (AFib) exists more frequently in patients with aortic stenosis (AS) than in patients without, and AFib may be a sign of progressive deterioration of AS. Echocardiographic assessment of AS in sinus rhythm is well documented, however, little is known about AFib in AS since such patients often are excluded from clinical echocardiographic trials.AimThe purpose of this study was to assess the prognostic importance of AFib in AS.MethodsThe study was designed as a single-center case-control study. Patients with AS and AFib were enrolled as cases (n = 103) and subsequently matched to controls (103 patients with AS but sinus rhythm). Cases and controls were matched according to age, gender and severity of AS. Primary outcome was all cause mortality and follow-up was 100% complete.ResultsCompared to controls the group with AFib had lower mean ejection fraction (42% vs. 49%; p < 0.001) and stroke volume (47 mL vs. 55 mL; p = 0.004), but higher heart rate (81 bpm vs. 68 bpm; p < 0.001) and no significant difference with regard to cardiac output (3.8 L vs. 4.0 L; p = 0.29). Accordingly, aortic jet velocity and gradients were significantly lower in AFib compared to controls but there were no differences (p = 0.38) in aortic valve area calculated by the continuity equation. During a median follow-up of 2.3 years (IQR: 1.2-3.6), 70 (34%) patients with AS died: 42 patients with AFib and 28 patients with sinus rhythm (p < 0.02). After adjusting for echocardiographic significant differences, AFib remained an independent predictor of mortality (HR 2.72 (95% CI: 1.12–6.61), p < 0.03). There was no significant interaction (p = 0.62) between AFib and AS on the risk of mortality, indicating that AFib predicted bad outcome regardless of the severity of AS.ConclusionsAFib is an independent risk factor in patients with AS and the prognostic impact of AFib seems to be the same despite the severity of AS.
Highlights
Atrial fibrillation (AFib) exists more frequently in patients with aortic stenosis (AS) than in patients without, and AFib may be a sign of progressive deterioration of AS
There was a trend for significant difference between the two groups regarding the presence symptoms (p = 0.08); the control group reported more frequently angina whereas dyspnea were more frequent in the case group (Table 1)
EuroSCORE were lower in the case group, this difference was all explained by the difference in left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) between the groups: when removing the influence of left ventricular (LV) dysfunction from EuroSCORE, there were no significant differences between cases and controls (Table 1)
Summary
Atrial fibrillation (AFib) exists more frequently in patients with aortic stenosis (AS) than in patients without, and AFib may be a sign of progressive deterioration of AS. Echocardiographic assessment of AS in sinus rhythm is well documented, little is known about AFib in AS since such patients often are excluded from clinical echocardiographic trials. Aortic stenosis (AS) and atrial fibrillation (AFib) are two conditions associated with high cardiovascular morbidity and mortality [1,2,3,4,5]. Echocardiographic assessment of AS in sinus rhythm (SR) is well documented; echocardiographic documentation of patients with AS and AFib is limited. The beat-to-beat variation in AFib complicates echocardiographic assessment and patients with AFib are often excluded from echocardiographic clinical trials. We hypothesized that AFib is an adverse sign in AS in general, leading to impaired cardiac function as assessed by echocardiography and being an independent risk factor of mortality
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