A 4-year prospective follow-up study of the role of alcohol in recurrences of atrial fibrillation.

Abstract

Alcohol consumption data for 98 consecutive young and middle-aged patients presenting with new-onset atrial fibrillation (AF) were obtained on admission to hospital. The patients were subsequently followed up for 4 years in order to study the rate of recurrence of AF and its possible association with alcohol use. Neither recent alcohol intake, assessed as the amount of alcohol consumed during the week preceding AF, nor chronic alcohol use, assessed by the CAGE questionnaire, were significantly related to AF recurrence or development of chronic AF. This was also true for individuals with idiopathic AF. Left atrial diameter on echocardiography was significantly greater among the patients who developed chronic AF than among the others (P = 0.03). In this prospective study chronic alcohol abuse, as assessed by the CAGE questionnaire, was not associated with either subsequent recurrence of AF or development of chronic AF.