Original Study
Renin-Angiotensin System Inhibitors Prognostic Benefit in Older Patients with Atrial Fibrillation

https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jamda.2021.01.063Get rights and content

Abstract

Objectives

Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors (ACEi) and angiotensin-receptor blockers (ARB) have shown antiarrhythmic effects that are useful as part of the upstream therapy for atrial fibrillation (AF), both for primary and secondary prevention. Nevertheless, the potential prognosis value of these drugs in terms of mortality and major cardiovascular events is unclear, especially in older population with AF. Scientific evidence is scarce in this population and shows contradictory results. The aim of this study was to assess the potential benefit of ACEi and ARB in terms of mortality and major cardiovascular outcomes (hospitalization for heart failure, acute myocardial infarction and stroke) in older patients with AF, based on a real-world data analysis.

Design

Observational: analysis of a retrospective registry.

Settings and Participants

The study included 9365 patients of 75 years or older diagnosed with AF, from CardioCHUVI-AF_75 registry: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04364516. Date of registration: November 26, 2018.

Methods

We performed propensity score matching techniques to obtain 2 comparable groups of 3601 patients with and without ACEi or ARB treatment. We compared survival and cardiovascular outcomes in both groups of patients using Cox proportional hazards models.

Results

We did not find significant differences in terms of survival between using or not using ACEi or ARB for the older population (hazard ratio for mortality: 0.959, 95% confidence interval 0.872–1.054). There were no significant differences regarding cardiovascular major events between the 2 groups.

Conclusions and Implications

Treatment with ACEi or ARB did not improve outcomes in terms of survival and cardiovascular events in older patients with AF. These results should prompt the conduct of randomized clinical trials specifically in the older AF patient population to robustly address this issue.

Section snippets

Methods

For the study, we used a cohort of all consecutive patients aged ≥75 years diagnosed with AF between 2014 and 2017 from the health area of Vigo (Galicia, Spain), the CardioCHUVI-AF_75 registry cohort (ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT04364516).We did not apply any exclusion criteria once the diagnosis of AF was confirmed. Figure 1 shows the population flowchart. Patients were identified through administrative databases regional electronic medical records system at both the hospital and

Results

A total of 9365 patients with AF aged 75 years or older were included for statistical analysis. Baseline characteristics are summarized in Table 1. Mean age was 83.0 ± 4.9 years (range 75.0–103.0), and 60.4% of patients (n = 5657) were women. ACEi or ARBs were prescribed on 52.16% of the patients (n = 4885).

Patients on ACEi or ARB treatment were younger, but presented significantly higher cardiovascular risk and higher rates of previous coronary artery disease.

During a mean follow-up of

Discussion

Our study evaluated the prognosis benefit, in terms of survival and major cardiovascular events (HF admission, AMI, and stroke), of ACEi or ARB therapy in older patients with AF, based on a large contemporaneous registry of real-world data. According to our results, ACEi or ARB treatment is not associated with further prognostic benefit for these patients.

In contemporary AF trials, the main cause of mortality was cardiac-related etiologies (including sudden death, HF, and AMI), whereas stroke

Conclusions and Implications

ACEi or ARB therapy does not improve outcomes in terms of survival and cardiovascular outcomes in older patients with AF. Although these therapies are part of the upstream strategy, their use may not add a prognosis beneficial effect to older individuals. These results should prompt randomized clinical trials specifically designed for addressing this issue in the older patient population with AF.

References (22)

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    2019 AHA/ACC/HRS focused update of the 2014 AHA/ACC/HRS guideline for the management of patients with atrial fibrillation: A report of the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force on Clinical Practice Guidelines and the Heart Rhythm Society in collaboration with the Society of Thoracic Surgeons

    Circulation

    (2019)
  • Cited by (0)

    The authors declare no conflicts of interest.

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