Journal of Epidemiology and Global Health

Volume 4, Issue 3, September 2014, Pages 151 - 157

Incidence of acute-onset atrial fibrillation correlates with air temperature. Results of a nine-year survey

Authors
Ivan Comellia, Jayme Ferrob, Giuseppe Lippic, Denis Comellid, Elisabetta Sartorie, Gianfranco Cervellina, *, gcervellin@ao.pr.it
aEmergency Department, Academic Hospital of Parma, Italy
bPostgraduate School of Cardiology, University of Parma, Italy
cLaboratory of Clinical Chemistry and Haematology, Academic Hospital of Parma, Italy
dNational Institute of Nuclear Physics, University of Ferrara, Italy
eEpidemiology and Clinical Governance, Academic Hospital of Parma, Italy
*Corresponding author. Address: Unità Operativa Pronto Soccorso e Medicina d’Urgenza, Azienda Ospedaliero-Universitaria di Parma, Via Gramsci 14, 43126 Parma, Italy. Tel.: +39 0521 703800; fax: +39 0521 703144.
Corresponding Author
Gianfranco Cervellingcervellin@ao.pr.it
Received 22 July 2013, Revised 2 December 2013, Accepted 3 December 2013, Available Online 8 January 2014.
DOI
10.1016/j.jegh.2013.12.003How to use a DOI?
Keywords
Atrial fibrillation; Acute-onset atrial fibrillation; Climate; Temperature; Humidity
Abstract

Some diseases, such as renal colic, stroke, and myocardial infarction, correlate with seasonality and microclimatic variations. Although evidence is limited and controversial, a correlation between acute-onset atrial fibrillation (AAF) and seasonality has been previously reported. In order to elucidate the possible correlations between weather and incidence of AAF in a country with a temperate climate, the influence of day-by-day climate changes was analyzed based on the number of visits for AAF (defined as onset of symptoms within 48 h) in a large urban Emergency Department (ED) of northern Italy. All the episodes of AAF were retrieved from the hospital’s electronic database during a period of 3287 days (January 2002 to December 2010). Only the cases whose onset occurred within 48 h from the ED visit were selected. The total number of ED visits was 725,812 throughout the observational period. Among these, 3633 AAF cases were observed, 52% of which were males. A slight but significant negative linear correlation was found between the number of AAFs and the daily temperature (R = −0.60; p = 0.001). No correlation was found between the number of AAFs and the daily humidity (R = −0.07; p = 0.2).

Copyright
© 2014 Ministry of Health, Saudi Arabia. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Open Access
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

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Journal
Journal of Epidemiology and Global Health
Volume-Issue
4 - 3
Pages
151 - 157
Publication Date
2014/01/08
ISSN (Online)
2210-6014
ISSN (Print)
2210-6006
DOI
10.1016/j.jegh.2013.12.003How to use a DOI?
Copyright
© 2014 Ministry of Health, Saudi Arabia. Published by Elsevier Ltd.
Open Access
This is an open access article under the CC BY-NC-ND license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/).

Cite this article

TY  - JOUR
AU  - Ivan Comelli
AU  - Jayme Ferro
AU  - Giuseppe Lippi
AU  - Denis Comelli
AU  - Elisabetta Sartori
AU  - Gianfranco Cervellin
PY  - 2014
DA  - 2014/01/08
TI  - Incidence of acute-onset atrial fibrillation correlates with air temperature. Results of a nine-year survey
JO  - Journal of Epidemiology and Global Health
SP  - 151
EP  - 157
VL  - 4
IS  - 3
SN  - 2210-6014
UR  - https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jegh.2013.12.003
DO  - 10.1016/j.jegh.2013.12.003
ID  - Comelli2014
ER  -