[Rehabilitation for atrial fibrillation : Impact on arrhythmia and cumulative risk factors]

Atrial fibrillation (AF) occurs in cardiovascular diseases but also in hyperthyroidism. The independent risk factors (RF) that are cumulatively the cause of AF include arterial hypertension, obesity, malnutrition, alcohol and tobacco consumption, lack of exercise, diabetes mellitus, and sleep-related breathing disorders. These cause and reinforce each other and are amplified by psychosocial RF. This also leads to morphological consequences such as atrial cardiomyopathy or diastolic heart failure (HFpEF). Therapy focuses on stroke prophylaxis through anticoagulation and rhythm or frequency control of the AF.

The risk factors of AF are presented here in detail. RF control must be included in the management of AF. Effective risk management should definitely include the patient's lifestyle.

Although RF management can be integrated into the acute medical and outpatient treatment of AF, there is little scope to deal with the individual risk profile of individual patients. With the bio-psycho-social treatment approach, cardiological rehabilitation offers the opportunity to establish individual, lifestyle-oriented risk management and to achieve symptomatic improvement, decreased AF burden, better performance, and a better quality of life through correctly dosed training. Further studies to clarify the question of whether clinical endpoints such as hospitalization or morbidity and mortality are reduced by cardiac rehabilitation in AF are desirable.