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Journal Article

Citation

Lai HC, Chien WC, Chung CH, Lee WL, Wang KY, Wu TJ, Liu CN, Liu TJ. Int. J. Cardiol. 2015; 197: 133-139.

Affiliation

Cardiovascular Center, Taichung Veterans General Hospital, Taichung, Taiwan; Department of Medicine, National Yang-Ming University School of Medicine, Taipei, Taiwan; Department of Medicine, Chung-Shan Medical University School of Medicine, Taichung, Taiwan. Electronic address: trliu@vghtc.gov.tw.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2015, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/j.ijcard.2015.06.056

PMID

26126057

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Traffic accidents account for a substantial proportion of premature disabilities and deaths. Whether atrial fibrillation (AF) provokes while antithrombotics prevent from such events remains un-investigated.

METHODS: All patients ≥40years with newly diagnosed AF in 2005 were scrutinized from the "Longitudinal Health Insurance Database 2005" (1 million beneficiaries) of Taiwan's National Health Insurance Institute as the AF group. Four-fold number of age-, gender-, and comorbidity-matched patients but without AF served as the Non-AF controls. Patients were followed till occurrence of hospitalization-requiring traffic injury, death, withdrawal from insurance, or the end of 2010. Cumulative incidence of traffic accidents was compared between groups, and predictors and preventive role of antithrombotics for these accidents were identified by Cox regression analysis.

RESULTS: Within a mean follow-up of 4.3years, traffic injury occurred significantly more often in patients with AF (N=1724) than those without it (N=6896) (5.4 vs. 4.9 per 1000 person-years, log-rank p=0.012, HR 1.110, 95% CI 1.013-1.572). Cox models identified age ≧65years, hypertension, coronary artery disease, stroke, liver cirrhosis and CHADS2VASC score≧1 as risk factors for traffic injury in AF patients, whereas oral anticoagulants (HR 0.576, 95% CI 0.285-0.791, p=0.002) used in patients with CHADS2VASC score ≧1 but not antiplatelet therapy (p=0.197) as negative predictors.

CONCLUSION: Patients with AF are more vulnerable to traffic accidents especially when with higher CHADS2VASC scores and other comorbidities. This tendency to traffic accidents, however, could be ameliorated by oral anticoagulation in specialized cases but not by antiplatelet therapy.


Language: en

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