Clinical and Echocardiographic Profile of Patients with Atrial Fibrillation in Nigeria
Year: 2016
Type: article
Study design: Observational Study
Abstract: Background: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained cardiac arrhythmia encountered in clinical practice requiring treatment. There is a paucity of data on AF in Nigeria; hence, this study was undertaken with the aim to characterize the clinical and echocardiographic profile of patients with AF in our hospital. Materials and Methods: This observational hospital-based study was carried out on 55 patients with electrocardiographically diagnosed AF seen at a sub-urban tertiary hospital in Nigeria from January 2012 to December 2015. All patients who were reviewed clinically also had transthoracic 2-D echocardiography done. Results: There were 29 (52.7%) males. Patients mean age was 67.40 ±13.83 years with a stepwise increase in the frequency of AF as age increases. Hypertension (87.3%) was the commonest associated co-morbidity. Mean CHADS2 score was 2.38 ± 1.35 and 65.5% had CHADS2 score ≥ 2. Dyspnea was the commonest presenting symptom in 67.3% of the patients. Echocardiographic left atrial enlargement (LAE) and left ventricular hypertrophy (LVH) was seen in 60% and 89.1% of the patients respectively. The commonest echocardiographic diagnosis was hypertensive heart disease (65.5%) followed distantly by dilated cardiomyopathy in 16.4%. Conclusions: Increasing age and hypertension are associated with occurrence of AF. As majority of our patients with AF fall into high risk of stroke category, early institution of appropriate treatment modalities will help reduce the morbidity and mortality associated with stroke. Presence of LVH or LAE in patients with hypertensive heart disease requires aggressive management to delay the development of AF.
Source: JOURNAL OF HEALTH SCIENCE
Language: English
Subfield: Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine
Field: Medicine
Domain: Health Sciences
Open Access status: diamond
OpenAlex ID: W2993605395