Europace : European pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac electrophysiology : journal of the working groups on cardiac pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac cellular electrophysiology of the European Society of Cardiology
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Multicenter Study Comparative Study Observational Study
Adverse outcomes in patients with atrial fibrillation and peripheral arterial disease: a report from the EURObservational research programme pilot survey on atrial fibrillation.
Peripheral arterial disease (PAD) is highly prevalent in general population. Data on the prevalence of symptomatic PAD in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) are limited, and the impact of PAD on adverse outcomes in AF patients is controversial. Our aims were: (i) to define the prevalence of symptomatic PAD in European AF patients and describe its associated clinical risk factors and (ii) to establish the relationship of PAD to adverse events in AF, especially all-cause death. ⋯ Peripheral arterial disease is prevalent in 11% of AF patients and related to various atherosclerotic risk factors. Even if PAD is associated with higher risk of all-cause death on univariate analysis, this risk was significantly lowered and was no longer evident after adjusting for the use of CV prevention drugs.
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Comparative Study
Safe automatic one-lead electrocardiogram analysis in screening for atrial fibrillation.
Screening for atrial fibrillation (AF) using intermittent electrocardiogram (ECG) recordings can identify individuals at risk of AF-related morbidity in particular stroke. We aimed to validate the performance of an AF screening algorithm compared with manual ECG analysis by specially trained nurses and physicians (gold standard) in 30 s intermittent one-lead ECG recordings. ⋯ Automatic ECG screening using a computerized algorithm safely identifies normal ECGs in Lead I and reduces the need for manual evaluation of individual ECGs with >85% with 100% sensitivity on an individual basis.