New-Onset Atrial Fibrillation

Abstract

Anticoagulants are underused in older women with AF relative to older men with AF, despite comparable risk profiles. Women receiving warfarin have a significantly higher risk of major bleeding, suggesting the need for careful monitoring of anticoagulant intensity in women.

2012 HRS/EHRA/ECAS Expert Consensus Statement on Catheter and Surgical Ablation of Atrial Fibrillation: Recommendations for Patient Selection, Procedural Techniques, Patient Management and Follow-up, Definitions, Endpoints, and Research Trial Design

“…806,1046,1047,1048,1049 However, the rate of referral of women for catheter ablation of AF is significantly lower than men, and women are referred much later after failing more AADs. 920 There has not been consistent evidence to support female sex as a predictor of recurrence after AF ablation, based on multiple univariate and multivariate analyses.…”

Atrial fibrillation as risk factor for cardiovascular disease and death in women compared with men: systematic review and meta-analysis of cohort studies

“…Canadian women were half as likely as Canadian men to receive warfarin. 51 Analyses of more contemporary cohorts, including a global registry of 17 814 patients with AF 52 and an analysis of 83 513 patients with AF in Quebec, 53 however, showed no differences in use of anticoagulants between men and women with AF. 53 It is therefore unlikely that broad differences in treatment between the sexes are responsible for the increased relative risks we observed in women.…”

Atrial Fibrillation and Antithrombotic Therapy in a 75-Year-Old Population

“…AF has been found to be asymptomatic at the time of first diagnosis in 20–40% of the patients, more frequently so in men [11, 12]. These patients have the same, or maybe even increased, risk of stroke [13].…”