BOSTON, May 20, 2009 (UPI via COMTEX) -- U.S. researchers say they have linked
a heart rhythm disorder -- atrial fibrillation -- and Alzheimer's disease.
Lead researcher Dr. T. Jared Bunch says patients with atrial fibrillation were
44 percent more likely than those without atrial fibrillation to develop
dementia.
Younger atrial fibrillation patients -- under age 70 -- were 130 percent more
likely to develop the form of dementia known as Alzheimer's disease. The younger
atrial fibrillation patients with dementia were more likely to die than the
older patients with both disorders.
The Intermountain Medical Center in Salt Lake City researchers studying five
years of patient records for 37,025 people -- taken from the Intermountain Heart
Collaborative Study database of hundreds of thousands -- found 10,161 patients
had atrial fibrillation and 1,535 had dementia.
"Previous studies have shown that patients with atrial fibrillation are at
higher risk for some types of dementia, including vascular dementia, but to our
knowledge, this is the first large-population study to clearly show that having
atrial fibrillation puts patients at greater risk for developing Alzheimer's
disease," study lead researcher Dr. T. Jared Bunch said in a statement. "The
Alzheimer's findings -- particularly the risk of death for younger patients --
break new ground."
Bunch presented the findings at the annual scientific sessions of the Heart
Rhythm Society in Boston.
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Copyright 2009 by United Press International