INTRODUCTION: Atrial fibrillation (AF) has been recognised as the most prevalent sustained arrhythmia. Recently, a growing body of evidence has suggested that AF might be involved in the progression of cognitive impairment (CIM), potentially extending into types of dementia. Accordingly, the purpose of the present study was to summarise the findings of investigations examining association between AF and cognitive function as well as highlighting the possible causes of discrepancy between the findings and reviewing the probable mechanisms of CIM in patients affected with AF. METHODS: A systematic search in the literature was conducted in the databases of PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar with no language restrictions, using specified search terms to identify studies published between 1 January 1990 and 1 April 2018. Then, study designs, participant information, diagnostic approaches used for cognitive assessments, and incidence/prevalence rates of CIM and/or dementia were assessed. RESULTS: Out of the initial 2,364 articles retrieved, a total number of 40 studies were selected for data collection. Most studies had suggested a significant relationship between AF and CIM. In this regard, cerebral hypo-perfusion, altered cerebral blood flow, cerebral micro-bleeds, micro-emboli, vascular inflammation, cerebral small vessel diseases, vascular inflammation, and genetic factors were considered as the possible mechanisms of CIM in patients suffering from AF. It seemed that differences in study settings and designs, variations of diagnostic tools for CIM and AF, as well as underlying conditions such as age groups, concurrent chronic diseases, and therapeutic interventions for AF might be amongst probable factors justifying the diversity of findings across the selected articles. CONCLUSION: Although evidence is much more directed towards an association between AF and CIM, the role of AF in CIM needs to be confirmed in-depth via longer prospective and cohort studies at larger scales using accurate neuropsychological and cognitive function assessments. Moreover, the mechanisms involved in the relationship between AF and Alzheimer's disease (AD) require further studies. To conclude, the effect of different therapeutic strategies of AF on CIM should be investigated in more clinical trials.
INTRODUCTION:Atrial fibrillation (AF) has been recognised as the most prevalent sustained arrhythmia. Recently, a growing body of evidence has suggested that AF might be involved in the progression of cognitive impairment (CIM), potentially extending into types of dementia. Accordingly, the purpose of the present study was to summarise the findings of investigations examining association between AF and cognitive function as well as highlighting the possible causes of discrepancy between the findings and reviewing the probable mechanisms of CIM in patients affected with AF. METHODS: A systematic search in the literature was conducted in the databases of PubMed, Scopus, Cochrane Library, and Google Scholar with no language restrictions, using specified search terms to identify studies published between 1 January 1990 and 1 April 2018. Then, study designs, participant information, diagnostic approaches used for cognitive assessments, and incidence/prevalence rates of CIM and/or dementia were assessed. RESULTS: Out of the initial 2,364 articles retrieved, a total number of 40 studies were selected for data collection. Most studies had suggested a significant relationship between AF and CIM. In this regard, cerebral hypo-perfusion, altered cerebral blood flow, cerebral micro-bleeds, micro-emboli, vascular inflammation, cerebral small vessel diseases, vascular inflammation, and genetic factors were considered as the possible mechanisms of CIM in patients suffering from AF. It seemed that differences in study settings and designs, variations of diagnostic tools for CIM and AF, as well as underlying conditions such as age groups, concurrent chronic diseases, and therapeutic interventions for AF might be amongst probable factors justifying the diversity of findings across the selected articles. CONCLUSION: Although evidence is much more directed towards an association between AF and CIM, the role of AF in CIM needs to be confirmed in-depth via longer prospective and cohort studies at larger scales using accurate neuropsychological and cognitive function assessments. Moreover, the mechanisms involved in the relationship between AF and Alzheimer's disease (AD) require further studies. To conclude, the effect of different therapeutic strategies of AF on CIM should be investigated in more clinical trials.
Authors: Tatjana Rundek; Magdalena Tolea; Taylor Ariko; Eric A Fagerli; Christian J Camargo Journal: Neurotherapeutics Date: 2021-12-22 Impact factor: 6.088
Authors: Jens Cosedis Nielsen; Yenn-Jiang Lin; Marcio Jansen de Oliveira Figueiredo; Alireza Sepehri Shamloo; Alberto Alfie; Serge Boveda; Nikolaos Dagres; Dario Di Toro; Lee L Eckhardt; Kenneth Ellenbogen; Carina Hardy; Takanori Ikeda; Aparna Jaswal; Elizabeth Kaufman; Andrew Krahn; Kengo Kusano; Valentina Kutyifa; Han S Lim; Gregory Y H Lip; Santiago Nava-Townsend; Hui-Nam Pak; Gerardo Rodríguez Diez; William Sauer; Anil Saxena; Jesper Hastrup Svendsen; Diego Vanegas; Marmar Vaseghi; Arthur Wilde; T Jared Bunch; Alfred E Buxton; Gonzalo Calvimontes; Tze-Fan Chao; Lars Eckardt; Heidi Estner; Anne M Gillis; Rodrigo Isa; Josef Kautzner; Philippe Maury; Joshua D Moss; Gi-Byung Nam; Brian Olshansky; Luis Fernando Pava Molano; Mauricio Pimentel; Mukund Prabhu; Wendy S Tzou; Philipp Sommer; Janice Swampillai; Alejandro Vidal; Thomas Deneke; Gerhard Hindricks; Christophe Leclercq Journal: Europace Date: 2020-08-01 Impact factor: 5.214