Approved Research

Exploration and validation of genetic markers of AF

Lay summary

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is an irregular and often very rapid heart rhythm (arrhythmia) that can lead to blood clots in the heart. Because of this, AF increases the risk of stroke, heart failure and other heart-related complications.  If we can better predict who may develop AF, then physicians can target treatments accordingly to help prevent the development or the severity of this disease. 

We hope to explore if some of the markers that have been previously seen as related to having AF can help also point out who will develop the more versus less severe types of AF.  We also know that having AF with some other serious cardiac conditions increases the chance for dying or having a stroke.  Therefore, we want to also see which of these factors may be found in patients with hypertension or heart failure and point to a greater chance of developing AF.

We expect to take 6 months to clean and create analysis datasets, 8 months to do the analyses for these hypotheses, and 8 months to write the publication(s) and submit to peer reviewed journals.