Profile of patients with atrial fibrillation treated in internal medicine departments in spain. SUMAMOS-FA-SEMI registry

Abstract

Aim

To update the profile of patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) who are treated in internal medicine wards according to characteristics implicit in elderly patients.

Material and methods

Multicenter national registry with one-year follow-up that includes adult patients diagnosed with AF. The sample is divided into three groups based on comorbidity and dependency (group 1, functional patients with little comorbidity; group 2, partially dependent patients with comorbidity; group 3, dependent patients with comorbidity) and their characteristics are described, differentiating between inpatients and outpatients.

Results

1215 subjects were analyzed (mean age 81.5 ± 8.7, with 52.1% women). An increase in comorbidities associated with AF is observed compared to previous analyses in the same setting. There is a high rate of frailty (44.4%), and risk of malnutrition (52.9%) with significant differences between the established groups. An increase in baseline anticoagulant therapy was observed with fewer individuals treated in group 3, and a greater use of direct anticoagulants (62.3%) than anti-vitamin K drugs (22.2%), especially in group 3.

Discussion

The current profile of AF patients treated in internal medicine shows an aged but heterogeneous population with a higher rate of baseline anticoagulant therapy than in previous records with a greater use of direct anticoagulants, especially in the more comorbid and dependent population. We observed a high prevalence of frailty and malnutrition with differences between the established groups. This situation could have implications for establishing differentiated approaches.