Spotting the silent heart rhythm disorders to prevent stroke and dementia

Impact of clinically silent atrial fibrillation on cerebrovascular disease and cognitive decline in the UK Biobank Imaging Cohort

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common irregular heart rhythm. It is linked to increased risk of stroke and heart attacks. Short episodes of AF are relatively common, particularly in the elderly, and tend to go unnoticed. But it’s possible that these silent episodes could cause damage to the brain and a subsequent decline in brain function, which could be prevented by drugs, if doctors were aware of it. To find out whether these unnoticed episodes of AF do affect brain function, Professor Casadei is monitoring 20,000 people registered with the UK Biobank. Her team will monitor the heart rhythm of participants using a skin patch recorder and will use magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) scans to detect damage to blood vessels in the brain, alongside tests that measure people’s brain function. They will also look at genetics, lifestyle and environmental aspects of the participants lives which are recorded by the UK Biobank. By studying this data over time, the team hope to link these medical measurements to future occurrences of stroke, heart attack, hospitalization, dementia, and death. By determining whether silent AF increases the risk of stroke, Professor Casadei aims to identify a group of at-risk patients, who can then receive appropriate treatment, potentially preventing many occurrences of stroke and slowing people’s path towards dementia.