Epidemiological aspects of atrial fibrillation: a cross-sectional retrospective population study in an emergency hospital in St. Petersburg

• Aleksandra A. Kholkina
• Andrey G. Obrezan

Abstract

Aim – to analyze the epidemiology of atrial fibrillation (AF) in City Mariinsky Hospital from January 2022 to September 2024, to clarify the gender, age and socio-economic characteristics of the incoming flow of patients, the distribution of nosological forms of arrhythmia, the duration of treatment in hospital departments.

Material and methods. The cases of providing medical care to patients with atrial fibrillation in the hospital structure and in the short-term emergency department were analyzed.

Results. The share of patients with AF in the total cardiac flow of requests for emergency medical care in St. Petersburg State Budgetary Institution “City Mariinsky Hospital” annually reaches 12%. For the first 9 months of 2024, this trend of hospitalizations prevails. The prevalence of the disease is approximately equal among men and women, with an average age of 69 years. The majority of visits are from patients with a paroxysmal form of arrhythmia (75% of the total number of admissions), more than half of whom (64.5%) are treated in a short-term emergency department, restoring the rhythm against the background of drug cardioversion on the first day of hospitalization.

Conclusion. The analysis made it possible to draw up a typical portrait of a patient seeking medical help for AF in an emergency hospital in St. Petersburg and reassess some epidemiological traits of AF.

Keywords: epidemiology; atrial fibrillation; comorbidity

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