Cardiovascular Journal of Africa: Vol 29 No 3 (May/Junel 2018)

CARDIOVASCULAR JOURNAL OF AFRICA • Volume 29, No 3, May/June 2018

144

AFRICA

death within 180 days. Eapen and colleagues

investigated the

associations between AF and early outcomes of patients with

HF. They found AF to be associated with 30-day mortality in

patients with preserved ejection fraction but not in those with

reduced ejection fraction.

Our data should be interpreted in the context of their

limitations. The variable timing of the ECG may have affected

the specific results obtained, given that the ECGs were accepted

if they were recorded within two weeks of admission. Secondly,

our results are drawn from a population of young AHF patients

predominantly with systolic dysfunction. Consequently, these

findings may not apply to older patients or to those with

preserved LVEF. Finally, the study was conducted in selected

specialised centres, and only patients who consented to the

study were enrolled; therefore not all patients admitted with

AHF were represented and the study’s generalisability may be

limited. However, we have increased our understanding of the

growing importance of cardiovascular disease in this population,

who now suffer from the double burden of communicable and

non-communicable diseases.

Conclusion

AF is present in one-fifth of sub-Saharan African patients

with AHF. Almost half of the AF patients have valvular

disease (RHD) and are significantly younger. Valvular AF was

associated with all-cause death within 180 days but was not a

significant predictor of all-cause death or readmission within

60 days. The prescription rates of anticoagulation with warfarin

were low in this cohort.

THESUS-HF was funded by Momentum Research Inc, Durham, North

Carolina, United States of America

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