AFib is catching a lot of buzz lately. Two weeks ago, the PINNACLE Registry announced the expansion of its outpatient registry with a new platform focusing on atrial fibrillation that will include the next generation of anticoagulants and will be free for all cardiology practices. The new registry will help providers evaluate and improve adherence to established guidelines and performance measures and will strengthen future research and innovation. PINNACLE, part of NCDR, is the largest cardiovascular outpatient database in the country and currently has 2.1 million patient records representing valid patient encounters from hundreds of outpatient practices nationwide. Of the 2.1 million patients, more than 100,000 have AFib. Stay tuned for more developments as the registry becomes operational in 2012 and delves into collecting data that will improve patient care.

How do you use anticoagulants in your practice when dealing with AFib? Weigh in on the poll and see how others are thinking about new agents as well.

Results from the AFFIRM Trial (Atrial Fibrillation Follow-Up Investigation of Rhythm Management) were released last week. This trial explored how individual rhythm-control agents affect cardiovascular outcomes in patients with atrial fibrillation, looking at individual antiarrhythmic drug therapies compared with rate control with propensity score-matched analyses.  It turns out that rhythm-control agents had no effect on all-cause mortality, but were associated with an increased risk of cardiovascular hospitalizations.

This month’s featured article in the Atrial Fibrillation Community covers the clinical significance of silent stroke. According to the article, “[Recent] studies raise strong evidence that ‘ablation technology and energy source matters’ since non-irrigated multielectrode ablation resulted is a significantly higher silent stroke rate as compared to other ablation techniques. Thus, regarding the mechanism(s) leading to silent stroke it is very likely that most thromboembolic events are due to energy application, i.e. charring at the ablation catheter, rather than due to mobilization of pre-existing left atrial thrombi or air embolization.” So, should we be worried? Even though there is no current evidence that silent stroke impacts cognitive function, future studies are needed that explore the factors leading to their occurrence.

I invite you to visit the AFib Community which is a great resource to stay up-to-date on AFib developments and features articles, hot topics, news, case challenges and much more.