Gender and contemporary risk of adverse events in atrial fibrillation.

BACKGROUND AND AIMS: The role of gender in decision-making for oral anticoagulation in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) remains controversial. METHODS: The population cohort study used electronic healthcare records of 16 587 749 patients from UK primary care (2005-2020). Primary (composite of all-cause mortality, ischaemic stroke, or arterial thromboembolism) and secondary outcomes were analysed using Cox hazard ratios (HR), adjusted for age, socioeconomic status, and comorbidities. RESULTS: 78 852 patients were included with AF, aged 40-75 years, no prior stroke, and no prescription of oral anticoagulants. 28 590 (36.3%) were women, and 50 262 (63.7%) men. Median age was 65.7 years (interquartile range 58.5-70.9), with women being older and having other differences in comorbidities. During a total follow-up of 431 086 patient-years, women had a lower adjusted primary outcome rate with HR 0.89 vs. men (95% confidence interval [CI] 0.87-0.92; P < .001) and HR 0.87 after censoring for oral anticoagulation (95% CI 0.83-0.91; P < .001). This was driven by lower mortality in women (HR 0.86, 95% CI 0.83-0.89; P < .001). No difference was identified between women and men for the secondary outcomes of ischaemic stroke or arterial thromboembolism (adjusted HR 1.00, 95% CI 0.94-1.07; P = .87), any stroke or any thromboembolism (adjusted HR 1.02, 95% CI 0.96-1.07; P = .58), and incident vascular dementia (adjusted HR 1.13, 95% CI 0.97-1.32; P = .11). Clinical risk scores were only modest predictors of outcomes, with CHA2DS2-VA (ignoring gender) superior to CHA2DS2-VASc for primary outcomes in this population (receiver operating characteristic curve area 0.651 vs. 0.639; P < .001) and no interaction with gender (P = .45). CONCLUSIONS: Removal of gender from clinical risk scoring could simplify the approach to which patients with AF should be offered oral anticoagulation.

Thromboembolic events and vascular dementia in patients with atrial fibrillation and low apparent stroke risk.

The prevention of thromboembolism in atrial fibrillation (AF) is typically restricted to patients with specific risk factors and ignores outcomes such as vascular dementia. This population-based cohort study used electronic healthcare records from 5,199,994 primary care patients (UK; 2005-2020). A total of 290,525 (5.6%) had a diagnosis of AF and were aged 40-75 years, of which 36,340 had no history of stroke, a low perceived risk of stroke based on clinical risk factors and no oral anticoagulant prescription. Matching was performed for age, sex and region to 117,298 controls without AF. During 5 years median follow-up (831,005 person-years), incident stroke occurred in 3.8% with AF versus 1.5% control (adjusted hazard ratio (HR) 2.06, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.91-2.21; P < 0.001), arterial thromboembolism 0.3% versus 0.1% (HR 2.39, 95% CI 1.83-3.11; P < 0.001), and all-cause mortality 8.9% versus 5.0% (HR 1.44, 95% CI 1.38-1.50; P < 0.001). AF was associated with all-cause dementia (HR 1.17, 95% CI 1.04-1.32; P = 0.010), driven by vascular dementia (HR 1.68, 95% CI 1.33-2.12; P < 0.001) rather than Alzheimer's disease (HR 0.85, 95% CI 0.70-1.03; P = 0.09). Death and thromboembolic outcomes, including vascular dementia, are substantially increased in patients with AF despite a lack of conventional stroke risk factors.

Development of automated neural network prediction for echocardiographic left ventricular ejection fraction.

Introduction: The echocardiographic measurement of left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) is fundamental to the diagnosis and classification of patients with heart failure (HF). Methods: This paper aimed to quantify LVEF automatically and accurately with the proposed pipeline method based on deep neural networks and ensemble learning. Within the pipeline, an Atrous Convolutional Neural Network (ACNN) was first trained to segment the left ventricle (LV), before employing the area-length formulation based on the ellipsoid single-plane model to calculate LVEF values. This formulation required inputs of LV area, derived from segmentation using an improved Jeffrey's method, as well as LV length, derived from a novel ensemble learning model. To further improve the pipeline's accuracy, an automated peak detection algorithm was used to identify end-diastolic and end-systolic frames, avoiding issues with human error. Subsequently, single-beat LVEF values were averaged across all cardiac cycles to obtain the final LVEF. Results: This method was developed and internally validated in an open-source dataset containing 10,030 echocardiograms. The Pearson's correlation coefficient was 0.83 for LVEF prediction compared to expert human analysis (p < 0.001), with a subsequent area under the receiver operator curve (AUROC) of 0.98 (95% confidence interval 0.97 to 0.99) for categorisation of HF with reduced ejection (HFrEF; LVEF<40%). In an external dataset with 200 echocardiograms, this method achieved an AUC of 0.90 (95% confidence interval 0.88 to 0.91) for HFrEF assessment. Conclusion: The automated neural network-based calculation of LVEF is comparable to expert clinicians performing time-consuming, frame-by-frame manual evaluations of cardiac systolic function.

Systematic approach to outcome assessment from coded electronic healthcare records in the DaRe2THINK NHS-embedded randomized trial.

Aims: Improving the efficiency of clinical trials is key to their continued importance in directing evidence-based patient care. Digital innovations, in particular the use of electronic healthcare records (EHRs), allow for large-scale screening and follow up of participants. However, it is critical these developments are accompanied by robust and transparent methods that can support high-quality and high clinical value research. Methods and results: The DaRe2THINK trial includes a series of novel processes, including nationwide pseudonymized pre screening of the primary-care EHR across England, digital enrolment, remote e-consent, and 'no-visit' follow up by linking all primary- and secondary-care health data with patient-reported outcomes. DaRe2THINK is a pragmatic, healthcare-embedded randomized trial testing whether earlier use of direct oral anticoagulants in patients with prior or current atrial fibrillation can prevent thromboembolic events and cognitive decline (www.birmingham.ac.uk/dare2think). This study outlines the systematic approach and methodology employed to define patient information and outcome events. This includes transparency on all medical code lists and phenotypes used in the trial across a variety of national data sources, including Clinical Practice Research Datalink Aurum (primary care), Hospital Episode Statistics (secondary care), and the Office for National Statistics (mortality). Conclusion: Co-designed by a patient and public involvement team, DaRe2THINK presents an opportunity to transform the approach to randomized trials in the setting of routine healthcare, providing high-quality evidence generation in populations representative of the community at risk.

Redefining ß-blocker response in heart failure patients with sinus rhythm and atrial fibrillation: a machine learning cluster analysis.

BACKGROUND: Mortality remains unacceptably high in patients with heart failure and reduced left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) despite advances in therapeutics. We hypothesised that a novel artificial intelligence approach could better assess multiple and higher-dimension interactions of comorbidities, and define clusters of ß-blocker efficacy in patients with sinus rhythm and atrial fibrillation. METHODS: Neural network-based variational autoencoders and hierarchical clustering were applied to pooled individual patient data from nine double-blind, randomised, placebo-controlled trials of ß blockers. All-cause mortality during median 1·3 years of follow-up was assessed by intention to treat, stratified by electrocardiographic heart rhythm. The number of clusters and dimensions was determined objectively, with results validated using a leave-one-trial-out approach. This study was prospectively registered with ClinicalTrials.gov (NCT00832442) and the PROSPERO database of systematic reviews (CRD42014010012). FINDINGS: 15 659 patients with heart failure and LVEF of less than 50% were included, with median age 65 years (IQR 56-72) and LVEF 27% (IQR 21-33). 3708 (24%) patients were women. In sinus rhythm (n=12 822), most clusters demonstrated a consistent overall mortality benefit from ß blockers, with odds ratios (ORs) ranging from 0·54 to 0·74. One cluster in sinus rhythm of older patients with less severe symptoms showed no significant efficacy (OR 0·86, 95% CI 0·67-1·10; p=0·22). In atrial fibrillation (n=2837), four of five clusters were consistent with the overall neutral effect of ß blockers versus placebo (OR 0·92, 0·77-1·10; p=0·37). One cluster of younger atrial fibrillation patients at lower mortality risk but similar LVEF to average had a statistically significant reduction in mortality with ß blockers (OR 0·57, 0·35-0·93; p=0·023). The robustness and consistency of clustering was confirmed for all models (p<0·0001 vs random), and cluster membership was externally validated across the nine independent trials. INTERPRETATION: An artificial intelligence-based clustering approach was able to distinguish prognostic response from ß blockers in patients with heart failure and reduced LVEF. This included patients in sinus rhythm with suboptimal efficacy, as well as a cluster of patients with atrial fibrillation where ß blockers did reduce mortality. FUNDING: Medical Research Council, UK, and EU/EFPIA Innovative Medicines Initiative BigData@Heart.