Causes

• cardiomyopathy ^a
• ischaemic heart disease ^a
• congestive heart disease ^a
• valvular heart disease ^a
• other arrhythmias ^a
• hypertension ^a
• obesity ^a
• low TSH levels ^a  

Why?

Cardiomyopathy, ischaemic heart disease, heart failure and valvular heart disease increase the risk of AF

Patient	Prognostic Factor	Outcome	CER	OR (95% CI)	NNF+ (95% CI)
healthy men a	cardiomyopathy independent	atrial fibrillation at 44 years	7.4%	4.07 (1.45 to 11.45)	4 (1 to 30)
	myocardial infarction independent		5.8%	3.62 (2.59 to 5.07)	7 (4 to 11)
	congestive heart failure independent		6.4%	3.37 (2.29 to 4.96)	7 (4 to 12)
	valvular heart disease independent		6.9%	3.15 (1.99 to 5.00)	7 (4 to 15)
	angina independent		6.5%	2.84 (1.91 to 4.21)	8 (5 to 17)
	palpitations independent		6.9%	2.22 (1.24 to 2.97)	12 (7 to 60)
	supraventricular arrhythmia independent		5.5%	2.28 (1.74 to 2.98)	14 (9 to 25)
	ST or T wave changes independent		3.7%	2.21 (1.62 to 3.00)	22 (14 to 44)
	ventricular rhythm disturbances independent		5.4%	1.37 (1.06 to 1.78)	50 (24 to 310)
	hypertension independent		3.5%	1.42 (1.10 to 1.84)	68 (34 to 290)
	obesity independent		3.4%	1.28 (1.02 to 1.62)	110 (47 to 1500)
elderly a	low TSH (0.1 mU/l or less) independent	atrial fibrillation at 10 years	21%	3.1 (1.7 to 5.5)	6 (3 to 17)