EHRA: Risk for Heart Failure Common for Individuals With Screening-Detected A-Fib

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By Elana Gotkine HealthDay Reporter

Medically reviewed by Carmen Pope, Senior Medical Editor, B. Pharm. Last updated on April 16, 2026.

via HealthDay

THURSDAY, April 16, 2026 -- Individuals with screening-detected atrial fibrillation (AF) have a comparable risk for developing heart failure to those with clinically known AF, according to a study presented at the annual meeting of the European Heart Rhythm Association, held from April 12 to 14 in Paris.

Gina Sado, from the Karolinska Institutet in Stockholm, and colleagues examined the incidence and timing of heart failure in patients with screening-detected AF in a post-hoc analysis that included participants without prior heart failure from the STROKESTOP and STROKESTOP II randomized screening studies. These studies invited individuals aged 75 to 76 years to AF screening.

STROKESTOP included 6,824 participants who were invited to screening and 12,898 controls without previous heart failure. The researchers found that 21 percent of the 252 participants with screening-detected AF developed heart failure after a median follow-up of 6.9 years, corresponding to an incidence rate of 3.56 per 100 person-years for screening-detected AF versus 4.38, 1.04, 4.79, and 1.45 in participants with known AF and without AF and in controls with known AF and without AF, respectively. STROKESTOP II included 6,601 participants and 12,905 controls. Overall, 20 percent of 152 with screening-detected AF developed heart failure after a median follow-up of 5.1 years, corresponding to an incidence rate of 4.19 per 100 person-years, compared with 3.52, 0.93, 4.90, and 1.32 in participants with and without known AF and in controls with and without known AF, respectively.

"These findings suggest that asymptomatic AF is not a benign condition and highlight the need for early detection of both AF and heart failure," Sado said in a statement.

The STROKESTOP study was funded by pharmaceutical companies, and the STROKESTOP II study was funded by Roche Diagnostics.

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Disclaimer: Statistical data in medical articles provide general trends and do not pertain to individuals. Individual factors can vary greatly. Always seek personalized medical advice for individual healthcare decisions.

Source: HealthDay

Posted : 2026-04-17 02:06

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