Investigating the Effect of Inflammation on Atrial Fibrillation Occurrence by Measuring Highly Sensitive C-reactive Protein

Introduction: Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most prevalent cardiac arrhythmias that cardiologists and internists encounter. The goal of this article is to clarify an overview of the evidence linking inflammation to AF existence, which may highlight the effect of some pharmacological agents that have genuine potential to reduce the clinical burden of AF by modulating inflammatory pathways. Materials and Methods: In a case-control study, 50 patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) with different etiologies and 50 patients with sinus rhythm and similar bases were selected. Sampling for highly sensitive c-reactive (hs-CRP) was done on the patients presenting with AF to the Ghaem hospital between October 2006 and June 2007. Results: Mean age of the patients was 62 years with maximum of 90 and minimum of 36 and standard deviation of 13.80. The most frequent age group was 71-80years. Fifty-four percent of patients were male and 46% were female. Mean serum hs-CRP levels in AF patients with hypertension (HTN), Ischemic heart disease (IHD), Valvular heart disease (VHD), HTN+IHD and hyperthyroidism were 8.10, 9.40, 8.68, 10.16 and 5.98 mg/Lit; respectively. There was significant difference between hs-CRP levels in hypertensive patients in the two groups (P=0.010). Similar results were observed in IHD patients, VHD patients and HTN+IHD patients in two groups (P=0.015, P=0.037, P=0.000). Conclusion: In addition to some risk factors like baseline cardiac diseases, aging, thyrotoxicosis, pulmonary embolism, pneumonia and cardiac surgery, there also appears to be consistent links between hs-CRP, a marker of inflammation, and the pathogenesis of AF.