Mortality and morbidity in patients with atrial fibrillation and liver cirrhosis

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common cardiac arrhythmia encountered in clinical practice. However, the outcomes associated with AF in hospitalized patients with liver cirrhosis are unknown.

To determine the outcomes of hospitalized patients with liver cirrhosis and AF.

In this study, we examined morbidity and mortality of patients with concomitant AF and liver cirrhosis from the National Inpatient Sample database, the largest publicly available inpatient healthcare database in the United States.

A total of 696937 patients with liver cirrhosis were included, 45745 of whom had concomitant AF (6.6%). Liver cirrhosis patients with AF had higher rates of in-hospital mortality (12.6% vs 10.3%, P < 0.001), clinical stroke (1.6% vs 1.1%, P < 0.001), and acute kidney injury (28.2% vs 25.1%, P < 0.001), and less gastrointestinal bleeding (4.4% vs 5.1%, P < 0.001) and blood transfusion (22.5% vs 23.8%, P < 0.001) compared with those who did not have the arrhythmia. In addition, they had a longer length of stay (8 ± 10 d vs 7 ± 8 d, P < 0.001) and higher hospitalization costs (20720 ± 33210 $ vs 16272 ± 24166 $, P < 0.001).

In subjects with liver cirrhosis, AF is associated with higher rates of inpatient mortality, stroke, and acute kidney injury compared to those who do not have the cardiac arrhythmia.