Current Pharmaceutical Design - Volume 21, Issue 5, 2015

Patients’ beliefs about their health (and illness), medications and healthcare they receive are important determinants of whether or not they accept recommended treatments; influence their coping responses in relation to their illness; make them adhere to recommended therapy and ultimately affect health outcomes. Incorporation of patients’ preferences for therapy should now be considered an integral part of the decision-ma Read More

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained rhythm disturbance, increasing prevalence with age, in particular in patients with cardiovascular disease. On the other hand, a subset of patients with AF being <60 years old and no evidence of underlying cardiovascular disease, and laboratory tests including thyroid function, echocardiography and exercise” test is well described. This is the called lone AF, where t Read More

The term idiopathic or lone atrial fibrillation (AF) is commonly used in the young and apparently healthy individual who suffers from AF. Although there is conflicting evidence concerning prognosis, these patients are at risk to develop (vascular) comorbidities in the years following AF onset. It is conceivable that early stages of vascular disease, undetectable by the routine diagnostics, may contribute to the pathophysiology of “ap Read More

Lone atrial fibrillation is a set of heterogeneous disorders grouped together due to our limited understanding of their pathophysiology. Rate control and rhythm control are two strategies used to treat atrial fibrillation but neither has shown improvement in mortality. Therefore, the goal of treatment in patients with lone atrial fibrillation is to improve health related quality of life. Anti-arrhythmic medications are not well studi Read More

Atrial fibrillation occurring in the absence of cardiovascular disease in individuals younger than 60 years is known as lone atrial fibrillation. Nearly 1-12% of atrial fibrillation is considered to be lone atrial fibrillation. As our understanding of atrial fibrillation grows, we wonder as to whether there is such as thing as “lone” atrial fibrillation? We know that male sex, obesity, obstructive sleep apnea, alcohol consumption and endurance Read More

Atrial fibrillation is the most common sustained arrhythmia in clinical practice, associated with increased mortality, risk of stroke and heart failure, as well as the reduction of the quality of life. Atrial fibrillation may be encountered in young otherwise healthy individuals, due to the isolated electrophysiological disorder limited mostly to the pulmonary veins and posterior left atrial wall, or associated with the presence of adva Read More

“Lone” atrial fibrillation (AF) is generally used to refer to patients with AF in the absence of structural heart disease. When the decision for oral anticoagulation is discussed, “lone” AF refers to patients who do not have established stroke risk factors. Imaging is often used to rule out structural heart disease, e.g. coronary artery disease, peripheral vascular disease, mitral stenosis or left ventricular (LV) dysfunction. Imaging of th Read More

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most prevalent sustained cardiac arrhythmia in adult population and confers significant thromboembolic risk. Endothelial dysfunction has been recognized as a possible contributor to thrombogenesis in AF. The arrhythmia has been associated with thrombogenic atrial endocardial lesions and evidence of increased circulating biomarkers of endothelial dysfunction (e.g. von Willebrand factor, soluble thro Read More

Lone atrial fibrillation (LAF) is generally regarded as a benign disorder that does not significantly increase the risk of thromboembolism and mortality. However, there is growing evidence that “lone” atrial fibrillation (AF) is a “heterogeneous” disorder with varying risk for thromboembolism based on the patient’s underlying cardiovascular risk factors. Blood biomarkers, including markers of myocardial strai Read More

Atrial fibrillation (AF) may occur in the absence of identifiable causes, co-morbidities or structural cardiac disease (lone AF). Silent AF is common and patients may have a completely asymptomatic arrhythmia or may experience both symptomatic and asymptomatic AF episodes. It has been estimated that among patients with recognized AF, one third has no appreciable symptoms. In contemporary clinical practice, AF remai Read More

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia. A subgroup of patients presents with AF without traditional risk factors and is diagnosed before the age of 60 years. Such patients are commonly referred as having “lone AF” and comprise 10-20% of all cases. A number of studies have demonstrated that AF, and in particular lone AF, have a substantial genetic component. Genome-wide association studies ( Read More

Ever since the original description of a ‘peculiar pulse irregularity’, atrial fibrillation (AF) has been studied extensively and has come a long journey from the recognition of its cardiac origins, to the modern concept of AF as a serious public health challenge with profound social and economic implications. This arrhythmia affects around 2% of adult population, and the most common underlying heart diseases accompanying AF Read More