Anticoagulant treatment in patients with atrial fibrillation and ischemic stroke.

BACKGROUND: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac dysrhythmia, with a lifetime risk of 25%, and it is a well-known independent risk factor for ischemic stroke. Over the last 15 years, efforts have been made to initiate relevant treatment in patients with AF. A retrospective study was set up to clarify whether this effort has resulted in a decreased proportion of patients with known AF experiencing an ischemic stroke. METHODS: Patients admitted to the Department of Neurology, Vejle Hospital, Denmark, with ischemic stroke from January 1997 to December 2012 were included in the study. RESULTS: A total of 4134 patients were included in the study. Overall, the yearly proportion of patients with known AF varied between 9% and 18%. No significant change was observed (P = .511). The proportion of patients with known AF treated with anticoagulants at the time of the stroke and the proportion of newly discovered AF were significantly increasing during the study period (P = .002 and P = .035, respectively). Subgroup analysis of the patients aged 65-75 years showed similar results. CONCLUSIONS: No significant reduction in the proportion of patients admitted with ischemic stroke and AF was observed. An explanation could be an increase in the prevalence of AF in the general population, leaving the proportion of patients admitted with ischemic stroke unchanged. Other risk factors have been sought reduced as well with the implementation of national guidelines regarding hypertension, hypercholesterolemia, and diabetes.

Heart disease in patients with osteogenesis imperfecta - A systematic review.

INTRODUCTION: Osteogenesis imperfecta (OI) is a rare, inherited systemic connective tissue disease that causes decreased bioavailability of collagen type 1. Collagen type 1 is the most abundant connective tissue in the body and a key part of many organs. While the bone phenotype in OI is well described, less is known about the effects of decreased collagen on other organs. In the heart, collagen type 1 is present in the heart valves, chordae tendineae, annuli fibrosi and the interventricular septum. It is thus likely that the heart is affected in OI. OBJECTIVES: The aim of this systematic literature review was to investigate whether patients with OI have an increased risk of cardiovascular disease compared to healthy adults. DATA SOURCES: PubMed, Embase and key scientific meetings were searched for publications fulfilling the inclusion criteria. STUDY SELECTION: Studies were selected if at least one patient with OI was described as having cardiovascular disease. The articles should be written in English, French, Italian, Spanish, German, Norwegian or Danish or have an English abstract. DATA EXTRACTION: Data were extracted by HA, FTJ and LF using a predefined protocol. RESULTS: A total of 68 studies were included in the review, comprising 51 case reports, 8 small case series (n<10 patients), 4 large case series (n ≥ 10 patients) and 5 cross-sectional studies comparing patients and controls. Together, the papers comprised 499 patients and covered 45 years of medical literature. The most commonly reported heart diseases amongst the patients with OI were valvulopathies and increased aortic diameter. Findings in the large case series and the cross-sectional studies were broadly similar to each other. CONCLUSION: The findings support the hypothesis that patients with OI have increased risk of heart disease compared to healthy controls. It is biologically plausible that patients with OI may have an increased risk of developing heart disease, and valve disease in particular.