CardioExchange Archive

Atrial Fibrillation and Dementia Linked: The aging of the population will be accompanied by inevitable increases in the incidence of diseases like dementia and atrial fibrillation (AF). Now an epidemiologic study of more than 37,000 consecutive patients from the Intermountain Heart Collaborative Study has found that AF is independently associated with all types of dementia. The report by Bunch et al in Heart Rhythm also found that the risk of developing Alzheimer’s Disease was highest in younger patients with AF. In addition, patients with dementia who had AF had a greater risk of dying.

Predicting Mortality after PCI: Using data from the National Cardiovascular Data Registry, Peterson et al developed a model to predict the risk of mortality following PCI. In their report in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology, the researchers observed an in-hospital mortality rate ranging from 0.65% for elective PCI to 4.91% for STEMI patients. “We anticipate that these models will have multiple applications (including bedside risk estimation using the simplified risk score, comparison of hospital performance, and risk adjustment),” they concluded. In an accompanying editorial, Dean Kereiakes said the new score “accurately predicts the risk of in-hospital death following either elective or primary PCI” but noted several obstacles that may prevent its immediate adoption in widespread clinical practice.