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## Meet the editor

Dr. Gabriel Cismaru is an electrophysiologist who works in the EP lab of the Rehabilitation Hospital Cluj-Napoca. He works in the Cardiac Intensive Care Unit dealing with various cardiac emergencies, including brady- and tachyarrhythmias. A distinguished cardiologist and researcher, Dr. Cismaru has written many articles on catheter ablation of different types of arrhythmias: atrial fibrillation, paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia, ventricular

fibrillation, and a number of books in the field of cardiac arrhythmias.

Dr. Keith Andrew Chan graduated from the Cebu Institute of Medicine and pursued his internal medicine residency training at Chong Hua Hospital in Cebu, Philippines. He is currently the Chief Adult Cardiology Fellow of the Chong Hua Heart Institute in Cebu, Philippines. His fields of interest include clinical cardiology, electrophysiology, and arrhythmias as well as interventional and structural cardiology. He is passionate about teaching medical

residents and cardiology fellows the basics of hemodynamic and electrophysiologic disease mechanisms and often considers himself a "lifelong student of cardiology."

Contents

**Section 1**

**Section 2**

New Challenges

*and Goran Davidović*

Health Technologies

**Preface III**

Epidemiology of Atrial Fibrillation **1**

**Chapter 1 3**

Treatment of Atrial Fibrillation **23**

**Chapter 2 25**

**Chapter 3 49**

**Chapter 4 67**

**Chapter 5 85**

**Chapter 6 99**

Screening for Atrial Fibrillation and the Role of Digital

Anticoagulation in Atrial Fibrillation Patients

*by Alba María Costa Grille, Irene Criado Martín* 

New Results in Catheter Ablation for Atrial Fibrillation

*by Manoraj Navaratnarajah, Suvitesh Luthra and Sunil Ohri*

Antiarrhythmic Drugs in Atrial Fibrillation *by Stefan Simović, Ivan Srejović, Vladimir Živković, Slobodanka Mitrović, Jovana Jeremić, Vladimir Jakovljević*

*Morten Lamberts and Jo Ann LeQuang*

*and Roberto Petidier Torregrossa*

*by Nándor Szegedi and László Gellér*

Surgical Treatment of Atrial Fibrillation

*by Edward Richardson, Angela Hall and Andrew R.J. Mitchell*

*by Peter Magnusson, Joseph V. Pergolizzi Jr, Randall K. Wolf,* 

Anticoagulation in AF and Elderly Frail Patient: How to Face

### Contents


Preface

Atrial fibrillation (AF) continues to remain a challenge to both clinical cardiologists and electrophysiology specialists alike. It is the most common type of arrhythmia in Europe and the United States. Advances in the 21st century have brought about new treatment and diagnostic tools that have provided solutions and explanations for numerous problems plaguing early AF management. However, although the optimal management of this highly prevalent arrhythmia has greatly advanced,

Numerous populations encounter atrial fibrillation in their daily lives, with both the elderly and the pediatric population having their own obstacles for optimal management of this arrhythmia. Apart from traditional echocardiographic methods of identifying patients at risk for persistent AF, there are now new methods for traditional cardiac ultrasonography as well as newer modalities that will enable better prognostication and identification of subtypes that will benefit from various AF treatment strategies. Furthermore, with the advent of newer anti-arrhythmic medications and methods of ablation and stroke prevention, the goals of AF treatment have now become easier to achieve—but not without their own share of

The book is divided into two self-contained and distinct parts: the first on the epidemiology of AF and the second on the treatment of this disease. The chapters are well structured, following a logical description, from the epidemiology of the disease, as mentioned before, and continuing with different options of treatment: anticoagulants, antiarrhythmic drugs, catheter ablation, and surgery. The technical information is accompanied by figures or explanatory tables that summarize the

Dr. Mitchell Andrew together with his team from Jersey opens the book with a chapter on the prevalence of AF and use of digital technologies to assess the real burden of the disease. Alive Cor, Omron HeartScan, Zio Patch, RhythmPad, InstantChek, and Zenocire EKG are some of the devices used to detect AF,

increasing the value of classical methods used for AF detection. These devices will help us see the true face of this widespread arrhythmia in the general population. After the epidemiology of AF is presented, anticoagulation is discussed in the following two chapters: for both the general population and the elderly. Jo Ann LeQuang and her coauthors first define valvular and non-valvular AF using excellent tables that gather information from different European, American, Canadian, Australian, and New Zealand guidelines as well as studies published by experts in the field. After presenting the thromboembolic and bleeding scores, the authors of the chapter describe both antivitamin K and non-antivitamin K anticoagulants. The new oral anticoagulants are presented extensively, using studies on the safety and efficacy of drugs compared to classical antivitamin K. Finally, the authors offer an approach to choose between different anticoagulants based on clinical and lab data. In the following chapter, Petidier Roberto, together with his coauthors from Madrid, Spain, addresses the problems of anticoagulation in a particular category of patients, namely elderly, frail patients. Polymedicines,

many challenges are still notable in the wide spectrum of the disease.

side effects and adverse events.

information from the text.
