Researchers have said that the reasons for high risk of heart failure in women with Afib include smoking, high blood pressure, obesity, and diabetes. Atrial Fibrillation is the condition where the heart beats faster than it should. It may be a risk that stays with you or that comes and goes. Whichever it is, it is very bad for women.

Background Information

It has been suggested that women with atrial fibrillation who do not smoke, don’t have obesity, diabetes and hypertension have a lower risk of getting heart failure hence concentrating on these factors reduce the risk.

Christine Albert from Harvard Medical School and researchers in JACC: Heart Failure said that heart failure was increasing mortality among patients with Afib.

Albert stated that heart failure now kills most patients with Afib since stroke is prevented more.

She mentioned the use of anticoagulants to prevent stroke and how there is confirmed information on how to control stroke while there is data based on observation suggesting that modifying some of the factors that risk heart failure could decrease the risk.

DaraeKo, MD, Boston University School of Medicine, and his colleagues also expressed concern in having proven strategies for heart failure prevention in people with Afib.

They asked for randomized and controlled trials to come up with ways to manage heart failure in patients with Afib. They mention how there have been numerous randomized and controlled trials for stroke prevention in Afib from 1989 but none has been done for heart failure. The death rate of patients with Afib due to heart failure is enough to get the trials started. CPR is a requirement but it doesn’t have to be used on patients with Afib because of heart failure.

Here are the study details

The study done by Women’s Health Study had about thirty-five thousand participants who were very healthy. During a median of so many years later, about one thousand and five hundred women in the group got Afib with no heart failure.

Just like in other group studies heart failure is found to kill most people with atrial fibrillation. Heart failure has become most common after Afib like stroke once was.

It has been found that the atrial fibrillation to be linked to the increased heart failure risk.

When women with Afib got heart failure, mortality in cardiovascular and in all cause increased. It has also been revealed that high blood pressure, obesity, current smoking, and diabetes were associated with heart failure.

These factors were found to be responsible for most of the risk of heart failure and it was reported that those who managed optimal control of risk had a decreased risk for heart failure.

The strengths of this study are a large number of people were used, prospective analyzing and use of updated risk factors.

The limitations include the fact the study had women only and the majority were white hence lacks information on men and non-whites. The risk factors were discovered orally.