: The incidence and prevalence of AF have increased in recent years , although great variability still exists in Asian countries .
Variability in annual IS risk in patients with AF was apparent between hospital‐ and community‐based studies .
BACKGROUND : Our previous review reported great variability in the incidence and prevalence of atrial fibrillation ( AF ) in non‐Western cohorts , especially from Asian countries ; in recent years , epidemiologic studies on AF have been increasingly reported from Asia .
METHODS : The goal of this up date d systematic review was to present the current knowledge base of AF epidemiology in Asian countries since our previous review .
Increased risk of first-ever stroke in younger patients with atrial fibrillation not recommended for antithrombotic therapy by current guidelines: a population-based study in an East Asian cohort of 22 million people.
OBJECTIVE To assess the risk of first-ever ischemic stroke in younger patients with atrial fibrillation ( AF ) who have none of the CHA2DS2-VASc ( congestive heart failure , hypertension , age ≥75 years , diabetes mellitus , previous stroke/transient ischemic attack , vascular disease , age 65 - 74 years , sex category [ female sex ] ) risk factors ( excluding female sex ) by using the National Health Insurance research data base in Taiwan . PATIENTS AND METHODS From 22,842,778 insured people , we identified 24,612 hospitalized patients with newly diagnosed AF between January 1 , 2002 , and December 31 , 2004 , as the AF group and r and omly selected 98,448 age- and sex-matched persons without AF as the non-AF group . Both groups were followed up until December 31 , 2010 , to estimate ischemic stroke incidences in relation to other stroke risk factors . RESULTS During a follow-up period of 89,468 person-years , the stroke rate was higher in patients with AF than in those without AF ( 5.79 per 100 person-years vs 2.25 per 100 person-years ) . The higher prevalence of CHA2DS2-VASc comorbidities ( heart failure , hypertension , diabetes , coronary artery disease , and peripheral artery disease ) in patients with AF further increased the stroke risk . In 790 patients with AF aged 30 to 55 years who had none of the CHA2DS2-VASc comorbidities at baseline and retained a " low risk , " that is , those with a CHA2DS2-VASc score of 0 in men and 1 in women during follow-up , the stroke rate remained considerably higher than that in their non-AF counterparts ( 1.00 per 100 person-years vs 0.25 per 100 person-years ) , with a sex-adjusted hazard ratio of 4.09 ( 95 % CI , 2.97 - 5.62 ) . CONCLUSION This study finds an increased risk of stroke in younger patients with AF who are not recommended for prevention of thromboembolism by current guidelines . Better stroke risk stratification tools are needed to prioritize younger patients with AF for thromboprophylactic therapy in this population
: The incidence and prevalence of AF have increased in recent years , although great variability still exists in Asian countries .
Variability in annual IS risk in patients with AF was apparent between hospital‐ and community‐based studies .
BACKGROUND : Our previous review reported great variability in the incidence and prevalence of atrial fibrillation ( AF ) in non‐Western cohorts , especially from Asian countries ; in recent years , epidemiologic studies on AF have been increasingly reported from Asia .
METHODS : The goal of this up date d systematic review was to present the current knowledge base of AF epidemiology in Asian countries since our previous review .