 |
 |

Obesity and the Risk of New-Onset Atrial Fibrillation
 |
 |
| Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text and any section headings. |
|
 |
 |
To the Editor: Dr Wang and colleagues1 conclude that obesity is an important risk factor for AF and that this excess risk appears to be mediated by left atrial enlargement. We are concerned about 3 potential limitations of this study.
First, AF was diagnosed by electrocardiograms obtained either from hospital or physician charts or from routine Framingham clinical examinations. However, obese participants were approximately 2 to 3 times more likely to be receiving antihypertensive medications and approximately 2 to 5 times more likely to have diabetes than were normal-weight participants. As a result, obese participants are likely to have had more hospital and physician visitsand hence more chances of having their AF diagnosed. This is especially relevant to new-onset AF, in which spontaneous conversion to sinus rhythm occurs in almost two thirds of patients2-3 and in which up to 90% of episodes are not even recognized by the patients.4 The . . . [Full Text of this Article]
Harpreet S. Bajaj, MD
hb8188@albany.edu
Steven D. Hillson, MD, MSc
Department of Internal Medicine Hennepin County Medical Center Minneapolis, Minn
RELATED ARTICLES
Obesity and the Risk of New-Onset Atrial Fibrillation
Panagiotis Korantzopoulos and Theofilos M. Kolettis
JAMA. 2005;293(16):1974.
EXTRACT
| FULL TEXT
Obesity and the Risk of New-Onset Atrial Fibrillation
Daniel Parish
JAMA. 2005;293(16):1974.
EXTRACT
| FULL TEXT
Obesity and the Risk of New-Onset Atrial FibrillationReply
Thomas J. Wang, Helen Parise, Lisa M. Sullivan, Ralph B. DAgostino, Sr, Daniel Levy, Philip A. Wolf, Ramachandran S. Vasan, and Emelia J. Benjamin
JAMA. 2005;293(16):1975.
EXTRACT
| FULL TEXT
Obesity and the Risk of New-Onset Atrial Fibrillation
Thomas J. Wang, Helen Parise, Daniel Levy, Ralph B. DAgostino, Sr, Philip A. Wolf, Ramachandran S. Vasan, and Emelia J. Benjamin
JAMA. 2004;292(20):2471-2477.
ABSTRACT
| FULL TEXT
|