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(Circulation. 2009;119:2516-2525.)
© 2009 American Heart Association, Inc.

Contemporary Reviews in Cardiovascular Medicine

Atrial Fibrillation and Heart Failure

Treatment Considerations for a Dual Epidemic

Elad Anter, MD; Mariell Jessup, MD; David J. Callans, MD

From the Cardiovascular Division, Department of Medicine, University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia.

Correspondence to David J. Callans, MD, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, 9 Founders Pavilion, 3400 Spruce St, Philadelphia, PA 19104. E-mail david.callans@uphs.upenn.edu

Key Words: arrhythmia • atrial fibrillation • heart failure

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

	Introduction

 
Atrial fibrillation (AF) and heart failure have emerged as new cardiovascular epidemics over the last decade.¹ Heart failure affects 5 million patients in the United States, and >550 000 patients are diagnosed with new heart failure each year.² Although the incidence of heart failure remained stable over the past 50 years, the prevalence of heart failure in the United States has steadily increased. Heart failure is the primary reason for 12 to 15 million office visits and 6.5 million hospital days yearly.³ From 1990 to 1999, the annual number of hospitalizations increased from 800 000 to >1 million for heart failure as a primary diagnosis and from 2.4 to 3.6 million for heart failure as a primary or secondary diagnosis.⁴ The steadily increasing number of patients with heart failure is due partially to better treatment and "salvage" of patients with acute myocardial infarctions earlier in life.² As a consequence, heart failure carries a significant economic burden on our society because it is the most common discharge diagnosis and because more Medicare dollars are spent for the diagnosis and treatment of heart failure than for any other diagnosis.⁵ In 2007, the American Heart Association estimated that $33 billion was spent on heart failure alone.⁶

AF is the most common arrhythmia in clinical practice, accounting for approximately one third of admissions resulting from cardiac rhythm disturbances. An estimated 2.3 million people in North America have AF. During the last 20 years, hospital admissions for AF have increased by 66% for a number . . . [Full Text of this Article]

This article has been cited by other articles:

				A. C. Rankin and A. J. Workman Duration of heart failure and the risk of atrial fibrillation: different mechanisms at different times? Cardiovasc Res, November 1, 2009; 84(2): 180 - 181. [Full Text] [PDF]