The findings may run counter to a prevailing notion that alcohol might be “cardioprotective,” say the authors, suggesting that decreasing or avoiding alcohol may assist mitigate dangerous results.
‘The more alcohol you consume, the higher the risk of developing an acute atrial fibrillation (AF) event.’
The paper is printed in Annals of Internal Medicine.
“Contrary to a common belief that atrial fibrillation is associated with heavy alcohol consumption, it appears that even one alcohol drink may be enough to increase the risk,” stated Gregory Marcus, MD, MAS, professor of medication within the Division of Cardiology at UCSF.
“Our results show that the occurrence of atrial fibrillation might be neither random nor unpredictable,” he stated.
“Instead, there may be identifiable and modifiable ways of preventing an acute heart arrhythmia episode.”
Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most typical coronary heart arrhythmia seen clinically, however till now analysis has largely targeted on danger components for creating the illness and therapies to deal with it, somewhat than components that decide when and the place an episode may happen.
AF can result in lack of high quality of life, important well being care prices, stroke, and dying.
Large research have proven that persistent alcohol consumption could be a predictor of the situation, and Marcus and different scientists have demonstrated that it’s linked to heightened dangers of a primary analysis of atrial arrhythmias.
The analysis centered on 100 sufferers with documented AF who consumed at the very least one alcoholic drink a month. The sufferers have been recruited from the final cardiology and cardiac electrophysiology outpatient clinics at UCSF.
People with a historical past of alcohol or substance use dysfunction have been excluded, as have been these with sure allergy symptoms, or who have been altering therapy for his or her coronary heart situation.
Each wore an electrocardiogram (ECG) monitor for about 4 weeks, urgent a button at any time when they’d a standard-size alcoholic drink. They have been additionally all fitted with a repeatedly recording alcohol sensor.
Blood assessments reflecting alcohol consumption over the earlier weeks have been periodically administered. Participants consumed a median of 1 drink per day all through the examine interval.
Researchers discovered that an AF episode was related to two-fold larger odds with one alcoholic drink, and three-fold larger odds with two or extra drinks inside the previous 4 hours. AF episodes have been additionally related to an elevated blood alcohol focus.
The authors be aware examine limitations, together with that sufferers might need forgotten to press their monitor buttons or that they minimized the variety of button presses because of embarrassment, though these concerns wouldn’t have affected alcohol sensor readings.
Additionally, the examine was restricted to these with established AF, to not the final inhabitants.
“The effects seem to be fairly linear: the more alcohol consumed, the higher the risk of an acute AF event,” stated Marcus.
“These observations mirror what has been reported by patients for decades, but this is the first objective, measurable evidence that a modifiable exposure may acutely influence the chance that an AF episode will occur.”
Additional UCSF examine authors are Eric Vittinghoff, PhD; Sean Joyce, ScB; Vivian Yang, BA; Gregory Nah, MA; Edward P. Gerstenfeld, MD; Joshua D. Moss, MD; Randall J. Lee, MD, PhD; Byron Ok. Lee, MD; Zian H. Tseng, MD, MAS; Vasanth Vedanthan, MD, PhD; Jeffrey E. Olgin, MD; Melvin M. Scheinman, MD; Henry Hsia, MD; Rachel Gladtone, BA; Shannon Fan, BA; Emily Le, BS; Christina Fang, BA, Kelsey Ogomori, BA; Robin Fatch, MPH; Judith A. Hahn, PhD, MA.
Source: Eurekalert
