Arrhythmias & electrophysiologyCohort study
Long-term outcomes after hospitalization for atrial fibrillation or flutter
- Retrospective cohort study
- population-based
- Australia and New Zealand
Authors' conclusion
Patients hospitalized for AF or flutter had high death rates with an average 2.6-year loss in life expectancy. Moreover, re-hospitalizations for AF or flutter and related outcomes such as heart failure and stroke were common with catheter ablation used infrequently for treatment
Study context
- Population
- Adults hospitalized acutely with a primary diagnosis of atrial fibrillation (AF) or flutter, Australia and New Zealand, 2008–171,068,009 person-years (PY) follow-up
- Participants
- 260,492 adults
- Outcome
- Survival and loss in life expectancy
- Follow-up
- Up to 10 years
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Death and survival
- Deaths
- 69 167
- Death incidence rate
- 6.5/100 PY
- Survival at 1 year
- 91.2%
- Survival at 5 years
- 72.7%
- Survival at 10 years
- 55.2%
- Estimated loss in life expectancy
- 2.6 years
- Loss as share of expected life expectancy
- 16.8%
Observational data: associations, not effects.
Further findings
Re-hospitalization for HF · up to 10 years
- Incidence rate
- 2.9/100 PY
- Cumulative incidence by 10 years
- 16.8%
- competing risk model accounting for death
Re-hospitalization for stroke · up to 10 years
- Incidence rate
- 1.7/100 PY
- Cumulative incidence by 10 years
- 11.0%
- competing risk model accounting for death
Re-hospitalization for MI · up to 10 years
- Incidence rate
- 1.1/100 PY
- Cumulative incidence by 10 years
- 7.1%
- competing risk model accounting for death
Re-hospitalization for AF or flutter
- By 1 year
- 21.3%
- By 5 years
- 35.3%
- By 10 years
- 41.2%
- Incidence rate
- 11.6/100 PY
Catheter ablation of AF · up to 10 years
- Cumulative incidence at 10 years
- 6.5%
- Incidence rate
- 1.2/100 PY
Original publication
Long-term outcomes after hospitalization for atrial fibrillation or flutter. Eur Heart J. Published 28 April 2024. doi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehae204
Summarised from the published abstract; every number is checked against it