Discovery of atrial fibrillation subtypes paves way for precision medicine

New data on atrial fibrillation subtypes will be presented today that could pave the way for individualised treatment and a consensus will be reached on personalised medicine approaches to improve patient care.

Atrial fibrillation is the most common heart arrhythmia. It causes 20-30% of all strokes and also increases the risk of heart failure and sudden death. Signs of atrial fibrillation include palpitations, shortness of breath, tiredness, chest pain and dizziness.

Results from the CATCH ME project will be presented at a meeting organised by the European Heart Rhythm Association (EHRA) of the European Society of Cardiology (ESC) and the Atrial Fibrillation NETwork (AFNET) with funding from the CATCH ME Consortium EU Horizon 2020 Grant.

The project will help define clinical types of atrial fibrillation based on the main cause and shed light on mechanisms of atrial fibrillation from gene expression analysis of human atrial tissue. New information will also be presented on blood biomarkers for different types of atrial fibrillation, and on outcomes of atrial fibrillation patients who also have heart failure and in those who have a bleeding event.

Professor Paulus Kirchhof, chair of the 2016 ESC atrial fibrillation guidelines, said: “Atrial fibrillation remains one of the most common and most challenging conditions in cardiology. Patients have different profiles and medical problems related to atrial fibrillation. During the meeting we will review emerging data to discover patient profiles for precision medicine, enabling clinicians and researchers to better estimate who will benefit from current and emerging therapies.”