Atrial Fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia in clinical practice

Abstract

Purpose: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common arrhythmia in clinical practice. The estimated prevalence is 0.4-1% in the general population, increasing with age to 8% in those older than 80y - . Epidemiological data of this arrhythmia in Belgium are scarce. It is important to screen for AF because patients with AF have a 5 times more risk for an ischemic stroke . The CHA2DS2-VASscore calculates the risk for stroke in those patients, a score ≥2 necessitate a therapy with anticoagulants. Methods: Patients above 40 years were invited through different channels (TV, radio, journals, website, posters, leaflets) for a free screening in 69 hospitals allocated over Belgium during one week. After filling in a question on their personal history of AF, they had to fill in a questionnaire about their CHAD2-score. Afterwards a one channel ECG was taken using a versatile Heart Scan Device (Omron HCG-801-E©) by a trained nurse or a physician. If the ECG was positive for AF the patient was referred to their physician for follow-up. An Access database was constructed to collect the data and statistics were done in SPSS. Results: 11.550 patients were screened. 38% are male and 62% are female with a mean age of 59y (+/-SD 11). 860 patients declared a history of AF (7.4%), 10.188 had no history of AF and in 502 the history was missing. 229 (1.9%) of the total population had AF on the one lead ECG where 148 were newly detected. According the CHADS2 68 patients had a score of 0, 70 of 1 and 91 of ≥2. For the CHA2DS2-VASscore the distribution was as follows: 14 patients with 0, 46 with 1 and 169 with ≥2. Conclusion: Screening campaigns are feasible and able to detect 2% of patients with AF. A significant proportion of these patients are at risk for trombo-embolic event.