title: Patients with atrial fibrillation in a primary care setting: Val-FAAP study.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To assess the clinical characteristics of patients with atrial fibrillation in the primary care setting.
  
  
  METHODS
  This was a 2-phase, cross-sectional, multicenter study: phase A assessed the proportion of atrial fibrillation patients assisted in primary care over 5 days; phase B analyzed atrial fibrillation patients' clinical characteristics and management.
  
  
  RESULTS
  In phase A, 119 526 subjects (age 52.9 [15.2] years; 40.9% male) received primary care in participating centers; 6.1% had atrial fibrillation. This proportion increased with age, hypertension, and male sex. In phase B, we analyzed 3287 atrial fibrillation patients (age 71.9 [10.1] years; 52.3% male). Risk factors were hypertension (92.6%), hypercholesterolemia (70.6%), related cardiovascular disease, heart failure (21.3%), and ischemic heart disease (20.9%). Permanent atrial fibrillation was the most frequent type of atrial fibrillation (45.3%). Age and cardiac and renal diseases were related to permanent atrial fibrillation development. Although more than two-thirds of patients had a CHADS(2) score ≥2, about one-third of them were not taking anticoagulants; by contrast, 46.8% of patients with CHADS(2)=0 were taking oral anticoagulants.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In primary care, 6.1% of patients had atrial fibrillation. Patients with atrial fibrillation had high comorbidity. Anticoagulant treatment is far from optimal for atrial fibrillation patients in primary care.
authors: Servicio de Cardiología, Hospital Ramón y Cajal, Madrid, España. vbarriosa@meditex.es
authors: Vivencio
authors: V
authors: Barrios
authors: Alberto
authors: A
authors: Calderón
authors: Carlos
authors: C
authors: Escobar
authors: Mariano
authors: M
authors: de la Figuera
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D000367:Age Factors; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000925:Anticoagulants / Q000627:therapeutic use; D001281:Atrial Fibrillation / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000628:therapy; D001794:Blood Pressure / Q000502:physiology; D015897:Comorbidity; D003430:Cross-Sectional Studies; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D005343:Fibrinolytic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use; D006801:Humans; D006973:Hypertension / Q000150:complications; D017379:Hypertrophy, Left Ventricular / Q000150:complications; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D050177:Overweight / Q000150:complications / Q000453:epidemiology; D011320:Primary Health Care; D012307:Risk Factors; D012737:Sex Factors; D013030:Spain / Q000453:epidemiology; D020521:Stroke / Q000453:epidemiology; D055815:Young Adult
chemical_list: D000925:Anticoagulants; D005343:Fibrinolytic Agents