[Atrial fibrillation in patients of a medical clinic--a marker for multi-morbidity and unfavorable prognosis].

Out of 724 patients admitted to the medical department of a community teaching hospital during three months 110 (14.5%) had electrocardiographically documented atrial fibrillation (AF). 56% had chronic and 44% intermittent AF. Only 66% of patients with AF suffered from diseases generally accepted as cause of AF, 29% had cardiovascular and pulmonary risk factors, 5% had lone AF. AF was already known in 66% of patients, in 21% AF was documented at the first time, only 14% were admitted because of AF, although AF was clearly the cause of symptoms in an additional 11%. The mean age of patients with AF (72 years) was higher than that of patients without AF. 95% of patients with AF suffered from more than one cardiovascular or pulmonary disease or risk factor (mean index of diseases of 3.2). Hospital mortality of patients with AF was much higher than mean total hospital mortality (19 vs 7.7) except in patients with lone AF. We conclude that AF is a marker of multimorbidity and bad prognosis in patients of general internal medicine.