Arrhythmias & electrophysiology
Vascular Brain Injury in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation and Heart Failure
Authors' conclusion
AF and HF are independently associated with a higher prevalence of ischemic brain lesions, with the greatest burden observed in patients with both conditions. No interaction was found between AF and HF with regards to vascular brain lesions.
Study context
- Population
- Participants from the Swiss-AF study who underwent standardized brain-MRI, categorised by atrial fibrillation (AF) diagnosis and history of heart failure (HF)participants analysed, mean age 73 years, 30.8% female
- Participants
- 2,712 participants
- Comparison
- Association of AF, HF and their interaction with vascular brain lesions
- Outcome
- Prevalence of ischemic brain infarcts
Methodological detailsstandardized brain-MRI, logistic regression adjusted for pre-selected covariates
- Standardized brain-MRI
- Logistic regression adjusted for pre-selected covariates
Main finding
As reported in the abstract
Further findings
- Prevalence of white matter hyperintensities (WMH): AF-/HF- 43.2%
- Prevalence of WMH: AF-/HF+ 49.7%
- Prevalence of WMH: AF+/HF- 50.4%
- Prevalence of WMH: AF+/HF+ 65.6%
Interaction between AF and HF
- No significant interaction between AF and HF was observed for any brain lesion subtype
Brain infarcts (adjusted association)
- AF: OR 1.78
- P < 0.001 (95% CI 1.48-2.16)
- HF: OR 1.32
- P < 0.001 (95% CI 1.06-1.64)
- Reference category not stated
WMH (adjusted association)
- AF: OR 1.71
- P < 0.001 (95% CI 1.44-2.03)
- HF: OR 1.45
- P < 0.001 (95% CI 1.17-1.80)
- Reference category not stated
Original publication
Vascular Brain Injury in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation and Heart Failure. Europace. Published 31 October 2026. doi:10.
Composed by AI from the published abstract and checked against it. How Briefs are made →