Liver Disease as a Predictor of New‐Onset Atrial Fibrillation

BACKGROUND: Impact of liver disease on development of atrial fibrillation (AF) is unclear. The purpose of the study was to evaluate prevalence of AF in the setting of liver disease and whether increasing severity of liver disease, using Model for End‐Stage Liver Disease (MELD), is independently associated with increased risk of AF. METHODS AND RESULTS: Retrospective data analysis of 1727 patients with liver disease evaluated for liver transplantation between 2006 and 2015 was performed, and patient characteristics were analyzed from billing codes and review of medical records. Multivariable time‐dependent Cox proportional hazards model was performed to determine effect of increasing MELD score on risk of developing AF. Prevalence of AF was 11.2%. Incidence of AF at median follow‐up time of 1.04 years was 8.5%. Both prevalence and incidence of AF increased with increasing MELD scores. Prevalence of AF was 3.7%, 6.4%, 16.7%, and 20.2% corresponding with MELD quartiles 1 to 10, 11 to 20, 21 to 30, and >30, respectively. Compared with patients with MELD quartile 1 to 10, patients with MELD quartile of 11 to 20 had hazard ratio of 2.73 (confidence interval, 1.47–5.07), those in the MELD quartile of 21 to 30 had a hazard ratio of 5.17 (confidence interval, 2.65–10.09), and those with MELD values >30 had hazard ratio of 9.33 (confidence interval, 3.93–22.14) for development of new‐onset AF. Other significant variables associated with new‐onset AF were age, sleep apnea, valvular heart disease, hemodynamic instability, and reduced left ventricular ejection fraction <50% (hazard ratio, of 1.06, 2.17, 3.21, 2.00, and 2.44, respectively). CONCLUSIONS: Prevalence and incidence of AF in patients with liver disease is high. Severity of liver disease, as measured by MELD, is an important predictor of new‐onset AF. This novel finding suggests an interaction between inflammatory and neurohormonal changes in liver disease and pathogenesis of AF.