Monitoring individual triggers can reduce atrial fibrillation episodes

According to the latest research published today at the American Heart Association's 2021 scientific meeting, patients with atrial fibrillation who have undergone personalized testing to find the trigger for irregular heartbeats report a lower frequency of irregular attacks

Atrial fibrillation (AFib) is an irregular or trembling heartbeat that can cause blood clots, stroke, heart failure, and other heart-related complications

Gregory Marcus, the lead author of the study, professor of medicine at the University of California San Francisco School of Medicine, and associate director of cardiology research at the University of California San Francisco Health Center, said: "There are few studies on whether perceived triggers of AFib actually cause AFib attacks.

The researchers initially recruited 446 participants, of which 320 completed the study

Participants who test a specific AFib trigger can choose from the trigger menu-or write down a personalized trigger at the beginning of the study

At the end of the first six weeks of the trial, participants received their hypothetical triggers as to whether the probability of experiencing an AFib episode was affected

Research results include:

• Patients who completed the individualized trigger study reported a lower frequency of atrial fibrillation episodes within four weeks after the test than those who tracked only AFib episodes

  
  

• Compared with non-drinking patients, drinking is associated with more episodes of atrial fibrillation

  
  

• In contrast, caffeine intake has nothing to do with the increased risk of AFib attacks

  
  

Marcus said: "Since this is the first study to solve this problem, we have learned a lot of lessons that can be used for reference in future research

Marcus said these findings indicate that more real-time evaluations are needed, such as those of study participants who have access to daily textual surveys

This study has several limitations