Abstract

SANDOYA, Edgardo; AGUILAR, María del Pilar  and  VAZQUEZ, Horacio. Prevalencia de la fibrilación auricular en la población adulta de Montevideo. Rev.Urug.Cardiol. [online]. 2014, vol.29, n.2, pp.187-191. ISSN 1688-0420.

Background: atrial fibrillation is the most common sustained arrhythmia and a major cause of stroke. Since there are no data on its prevalence in Uruguay, the present research was developed to study it in an unselected adult population and to evaluate its relationship with some cardiovascular risk factors. Material and method: a cross-sectional study on a population sample of 2,070 individuals over 19 years, randomly selected proportionate to their age and sex of a universe of 150,000 users of our collective health care institution was performed. The diagnosis of atrial fibrillation was based on a single electrocardiogram performed at study entry. Blood pressure, height and weight were measured, and the presence of diabetes was analyzed. The differences in proportions were analyzed using the chi square test. Results: the overall prevalence of atrial fibrillation was 2%, being very infrequent under 60 years, reaching a rate of 5.0% between 60 and 79 years and 12.3% in the older age (p<0.00001). There was no significant difference between sexes, although a higher trend was observed in males. The prevalence was higher among hypertensive than among normotensive subjects (3.9 vs 0.8%, p=0.00001) and among diabetics than among non-diabetics (5.2% vs. 1.8%, p=0.04 ); no significant difference between normal weight, overweight or obesity was observed. Conclusions: atrial fibrillation had a high prevalence in the adult population over 60 years, in an order comparable to that observed in other populations of the Western world.

Keywords : PREVALENCE; ATRIAL FIBRILLATION; EPIDEMIOLOGIC STUDIES.

        · abstract in Spanish     · text in Spanish     · Spanish ( pdf )