News of cardiology and cardiac surgery

Angiographic Outcomes in the PLATO Trial

V. Kunadian ¹, S.K. James ², D.M. Wojdyla ³, C. Zorkun ⁴, J. Wu ⁵, R.F. Storey ⁶, Ph.G. Steg ⁷,⁸,⁹, H. Katus ¹⁰, H. Emanuelsson ¹¹, J. Horrow ¹², J. Maya ¹², L. Wallentin ², R.A. Harrington ¹³, C.M. Gibson ¹⁴

1 Department of Cardiology, Institute of Cellular Medicine, Newcastle University and Cardiothoracic Centre, Freeman Hospital, Newcastle Upon Tyne Hospitals National Health Service Foundation Trust,   Newcastle Upon Tyne, United Kingdom

2 Department of Medical Sciences, Cardiology and Uppsala Clinical Research Center, Uppsala University, Uppsala, Sweden

3 Duke Clinical Research Institute, Durham, North Carolina

4 Yedikule Education and Research Hospital of Istanbul, Istanbul, Turkey

5 Department of Geriatrics, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu, China

6 Department of Cardiovascular Science, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, United Kingdom

7 Institut National de la Sante et de la Recherche Medicale. Unite 698, Paris, France

8 Assistance Publique-Hopitaux de Paris, Hopital Bichat, Paris, France

9 Universite Paris-Diderot, Sorbonne-Paris Cite, Paris, France

10 Universitatsklinikum Heidelberg, Heidelberg, Germany

11 Research and Development Center, AstraZeneca, Molndal, Sweden

12 Research and Developent Center, AstraZeneca, Wilmington, Delaware, USA

13 Department of Medicine, Stanford University, Stanford, California, USA

14 Cardiovascular Division, Department of Medicine, Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center, Harvard Medical School, Boston, Massachusetts, USAne

Contemporary views on epidemiology, pathophysiology and risk factors of embolic complications of atrial fibrillation are reviewed in the article. Different methods used to establish risk of thromboembolic complications are characterized. Advantages and drawbacks of cardiovascular risk scales in patients with atrial fibrillation are analyzed.

 Key words: atrial fibrillation, thromboembolic complications.