Introduction:

Atrial fibrillation is the most common sustained cardiac arrhythmia. Its incidence is expected to increase worldwide due to the aging of the population. This is associated with an increase in morbidity and mortality and hospital admissions. In-hospital mortality predictors have not been studied in patients with atrial fibrillation. For this reason, an analytical study is carried out that shows the demographic, clinical and echocardiographic variables, predictors of mortality in this population.

Methods:

An observational, analytical study was conducted on data collected from the Colombian Cardiovascular Disease Registry data base. It took into account 830 medical records of patients admitted to hospital with a diagnosis of atrial fibrillation. Three logistic multivariate regression models were constructed in order to evaluate the variables associated with hospital mortality.

Results:

Three logistic multivariate regression models were obtained to predict the overall mortality due to cardiovascular and non-cardiovascular causes. Hospital admission due atrial fibrillation was a protective factor for overall mortality (OR = 0.2; 95% CI = 0.07-0.57, P = .003) and non-cardiovascular mortality (OR = 0.29; 95% CI = 0.09-0.99, P = .048). The thickness of the inter-ventricular septum had a positive correlation with overall mortality (OR = 5.89, 95% CI = 1.46-23.66, P = .013). The associated myocardial infarction had a positive relationship with cardiovascular mortality (OR = 5.29; 95% CI = 2.05-13.70, P = .001). The associated infection was a predictor for the three outcomes.

Conclusions:

The results show the predictors of mortality in patients admitted to hospital with atrial fibrillation in this region. Patients that were not admitted to hospital for this arrhythmia as a primary cause had a 5 times risk of overall mortality, and a 3.4 times risk of non-cardiovascular mortality.

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