THE ROLE OF BLOOD PRESSURE LEVEL IN THE DEVELOPMENT OF ATRIAL FIBRILLATION AFTER CORONAVIRUS INFECTION

ABSTRACT

Objective: It is known, that arterial hypertension (AH) is the main cause of atrial fibrillation (AF). The aim of our study was to assess the parameters of systemic hemodynamics as a predictor of AF development after coronavirus infection (CI). Design and method: We examined 118 patients with AF, at the age of 62.5 + 0.09 years with AF, who, on average, 6.2 + 0.5 months had undergone CI. Of these, 14 people (8.4%) also had atrial flutter. 72 people (61 %) had AF before CI (1st group of patients). The remaining 46 patients (39 %) had no history of this arrhythmia (2nd group of patients). Office blood pressure was measured according to the generally accepted method. Results: In the 1st group, the indicators of systolic blood pressure (SBP) were significantly lower than in the 2nd group (131.4 + 1.72 and 139.5 + 2.99 mm Hg, p < 0, 05), indicators of diastolic blood pressure (DBP) (81.5 + 0.74 and 87.9 + 2.41 Hg, p < 0.05), and heart rate (HR) (83, 0 + 1.86 and 98.0 + 2.4 bpm, p < 0.05). This difference in the groups was more significant between patients with hypertension SBP, respectively (134.7 + 1.5 and 143.9 + 3.8 mm Hg, p < 0.05), DBP (83.3 + 1.1 and 90.5 + 2.6 Hg, p < 0.05), and heart rate HR (83.0 + 1.86 and 98.0 + 2.4 bpm, p < 0.001). In addition, in group 1, AH was found significantly less frequently (in 59 out of 72 patients, 81.9%) than in patients in group 2 (in 42 out of 46 patients, 91.3%), p < 0.05. Conclusions: An increase in SBP, DBP HR and AH, are predictors of the development of AF in patients after CI.