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Atrial fibrillation screening perspectives after STROKESTOP and LOOP

Nature Reviews Cardiology volume 20, pages 1–2 (2023)Cite this article

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Screening for atrial fibrillation in high-risk populations could contribute to the prevention of cardioembolic stroke. Randomized trials of atrial fibrillation screening are directionally favourable but underpowered for stroke risk assessment; nevertheless, meta-analysis results are encouraging. Consumer-facing wearable devices can detect unknown atrial fibrillation at scale, although they are mostly used by individuals at low risk of stroke.

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Fig. 1: Randomized clinical trials on atrial fibrillation screening.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Heart Research Institute, The University of Sydney, Sydney, New South Wales, Australia

    Ben Freedman

  2. University Heart and Vascular Center Hamburg, Hamburg, Germany

    Renate B. Schnabel

  3. DZHK (German Center for Cardiovascular Research), partner site Hamburg/Kiel/Luebeck, Germany

    Renate B. Schnabel

Authors
  1. Ben Freedman
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  2. Renate B. Schnabel
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Correspondence to Renate B. Schnabel.

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Competing interests

B.F. has received speaker fees and travel support for speaking at sessions or official satellites of large international or continental society meetings from Bayer, Bristol-Myers Squibb–Pfizer Alliance, Daiichi Sankyo and Omron; and investigator-initiated research grants to the institution from Bristol-Myers Squibb–Pfizer Alliance. R.B.S. and B.F. have received funding from the European Research Council (ERC) under the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the grant agreement no. 648131, the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme under the grant agreement no. 847770 (AFFECT-EU). R.B.S. has received funding from the German Center for Cardiovascular Research (DZHK e.V.) (81Z1710103 and 81Z0710114), the German Ministry of Research and Education (BMBF 01ZX1408A), ERACoSysMed3 (031L0239) and Wolfgang Seefried project funding from the German Heart Foundation.

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Freedman, B., Schnabel, R.B. Atrial fibrillation screening perspectives after STROKESTOP and LOOP. Nat Rev Cardiol 20, 1–2 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1038/s41569-022-00803-9

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