Abstract 13671: The Presence of Supraventricular Premature Complexes is Associated with Increased Risks for Atrial Fibrillation Incidence and Death in Community-Based Health Checkups: The Ibaraki Prefectural Health Study

Abstract

Introduction: Supraventricular premature complex (SVPC) is considered as benign arrhythmias, while SVPC is an independent electrocardiographic predictor for new onset of atrial fibrillation (AF). The long-term prognosis of subjects with SVPCs remains unclear in the general population. We examined the prognostic significance of SVPCs in community-based health checkups.

Methods: We assessed 88,497 individuals (mean age, 58.4±10 years; 66% women) who participated in annual community-based health checkups in 1993 and were followed until 2008. The primary endpoint was stroke death or cardiovascular death, and the secondary endpoint was first AF event in subjects without AF or known heart disease at baseline.

Results: SVPCs were documented in 3,843 subjects (6.14%) in the 3-year baseline. During a 14-year mean follow-up, 1,186 subjects died from stroke and 2,486 subjects died from cardiovascular causes. The age-adjusted, sex-specific hazard ratio (HR) (95% confidence interval (CI)) of stroke death in subjects with SVPCs was 1.32 (1.05-1.67) for men, 1.75 (1.40-2.20) for women, and 1.57 (1.34-1.85) for total, compared with the subjects without SVPCs. The age-adjusted HR (95%CI) of cardiovascular death in subjects with SVPCs was 1.26 (1.08-1.49) for men, 1.56 (1.32-1.83) for women, and 1.44 (1.29-1.62) for total, compared with the subjects without SVPCs. The presence of SVPCs was significantly associated with increased risks of death from stroke and cardiovascular cause after adjusting for potential confounders. Second, AF occurred in 380 subjects during the follow-up (1.05/1,000 person-years). The presence of SVPCs at baseline was the strongest predictor of AF occurrence with an age-adjusted HR (95%CI) of 5.25 (3.91-7.06) for men, 4.11 (2.87-5.90) for women, and 4.94 (3.93-6.20) for total.

Conclusion: The presence of SVPCs was the strongest predictor of AF development, and associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular mortality in the general healthy population.