Characteristics of the study population
A total of 2,628 consecutive patients were included in the study with
268 patients (10.1%) exhibiting AF before surgical AVR. Baseline
patient characteristics are shown in Table 1. Patients who had
preoperative AF were older and more often received bioprostheses rather
than mechanical AVR. These individuals had a higher prevalence of risk
factors including hypertension, diabetes mellitus, peripheral vascular
disease, previous myocardial infarction, raised preoperative serum
creatinine, and poor left ventricular function (defined as left
ventricular ejection fraction <30% as assessed by
transthoracic echocardiography) compared with patients who had
preoperative SR [Table 1]. The patients were followed up for a
median of 1508 [790–2611] days, approximately 4 [2–7] years.