Introduction:
Hypertension has been reported as one of the most common risk factor causing atrial fibrillation (AF). Also, hypertension is associated with more persistent AF. However the epidemiology for incidence of hypertensive emergency in AF hospitalization is not well documented.
Hypothesis:
We hypothesize that frequency of hypertensive emergency has been increasingly associated with Atrial fibrillation.
Methods:
National inpatient sample from 2005 -2015 was used for the present analysis. Patients over 18 years, with AF as the primary diagnosis were identified using International Classification of Diseases, Ninth Revision-Clinical Modification (ICD-9-CM) code, 427.31. Patients with hypertensive emergency were identified using ICD-9-CM code. 401.0, 402.0, 403.0, 404.0, 405.0.
Results:
A total of 4,988,269 AF patients over 18 years of age were included in the present analysis. Of these hospitalization 49,423 had hypertensive emergency during hospitalizations and the rest 4,938,846 had no hypertensive emergency. There was a monotonic increase in the trend of rates of hypertensive emergency per 1000 AF hospitalizations, from 2005 - 2015. (P value <0.001) [Figure 1].
Conclusion:
There has been a significant increase in the rates of hypertensive emergency among AF hospitalization, over the past decade. Further research is needed to investigate the reason for this increased trend.
MIBG and imaging of cardiac adrenergic system: From heart failure to ventricular arrhythmias and atrial fibrillation, through cardiac asynchrony. What else?
