Search

Background: There is no research that evaluates the relationship between the severity of the symptoms of atrial fibrillation (AF), the presence of frailty syndrome and acceptance of the illness., Methods: The study included 132 patients aged 72.7 ± 6.73 with diagnosed AF. The severity of the symptoms of AF was determined according to European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA) guidelines, frailty syndrome was assessed using the Tilburg frailty indicator (TFI) and the acceptance of the illness was assessed using the acceptance of illness scale (AIS). A standard statistical comparison and multiple regression analysis using the stepwise method were performed., Results: In patients with AF, frailty was 5.31 ± 2.69 (TFI). Frailty syndrome was diagnosed in 59.8% of the AF patients who had a score of 7.17 ± 1.72. A higher level of EHRA score was connected with a smaller degree of the acceptance of the illness p = 0.0000. The multiple regression model indicated that age (p = 0.0009) and the severity of the symptoms (p = 0.0001) are important predictors of frailty syndrome., Conclusions: There is a relationship between the presence of frailty syndrome and the intensity of the symptoms and the acceptance of AF. Age and the EHRA score permitted higher levels of frailty syndrome to be predicted.

Agnieszka Mlynarska,1,2 Rafal Mlynarski,2,3 Czeslaw Marcisz,1 Krzysztof S Golba2,3 1Department of Gerontology and Geriatric Nursing, School of Health Sciences, Medical University of Silesia, Katowice, Poland; 2Department of Electrocardiology, Upper Silesian Heart Centre, Katowice, Poland; 3Department of Electrocardiology and Heart Failure, School of Health Sciences, Medical University of Silesia, Katowice, PolandCorrespondence: Agnieszka MlynarskaDepartment of Gerontology and Geriatric Nursing, Upper-Silesian Medical Centre, ul. Ziolowa 45/47, Katowice 40-635, PolandFax +48 32 2524098Email mlynarska83@gmail.comIntroduction: Frailty is a common geriatric syndrome that causes an elevated risk of catastrophic declines in the health and function among older adults – we hypothesized that frailty may be related to the maintenance of sinus rhythm after cardioversion.Methods: The study sample was a group of 199 consecutive patients over 60 (average age 71.41 ± 6.99; 40.2% women) with AF who were hospitalized in order to perform electrical cardioversion. The Tilburg Frailty Indicator (TFI) was used to assess frailty before cardioversion. The six-month visit after the electrical cardioversion was a follow-up. The follow-up period for the maintenance of sinus rhythm after electrical cardioversion was 180 ± 14 days.Results: Patients in whom cardioversion was effective had a statistically significantly lower severity of frailty syndrome (3.44 ± 1.83 vs 5.87 ± 1.12; p=0.000) and its components: physical components (2.14 ± 1.33 vs 3.62 ± 1.05 p=0.000); emotional components (0.92 ± 0.79 vs 1.29 ± 0.86 p=0.037) and social components (0.37 ± 0.56 vs 0.96 ± 0.46; p=0.000) compared to those patients in which cardioversion was ineffective. In the logistic regression, frailty (OR: 0.65, 95% CI:0.5010– 0.8330; p=0.000) was observed to be an independent predictor for maintaining sinus rhythm.Conclusion: Frailty is a novel, independent factor that can be used to predict the effectiveness of electrical cardioversion and the maintenance of sinus rhythm in the elderly population. Modifying the level of recognition in the Tilburg Frailty Indicator to a 4 improved the prediction of the effectiveness of electrical cardioversion as well as the maintenance of sinus rhythm.Keywords: frailty, atrial fibrillation, electrical cardioversion, sinus rhythm