Hospitalization Rates Soar for Irregular Heartbeat, Study Finds

HealthDay Reporter: 11/18/18

Atrial fibrillation can lead to dangerous heart complications

MONDAY, Nov. 18, 2013 (HealthDay News) — Hospitalizations for the most common form of irregular heartbeat nearly doubled between 1998 and 2010, and are expected to continue to soar during the current decade, researchers say.

Ultimately, hospital treatment of atrial fibrillation could cost the United States more than $21 billion in 2020 alone, according to research presented Monday at the American Heart Association’s annual meeting in Dallas.

Nearly 4.7 million people landed in the hospital with atrial fibrillation (sometimes called “a-fib”) from 1998 to 2010. It’s a disorder of the electrical impulses that coordinate the beating of a person’s heart, said lead researcher Dr. Sadip Pant, an internist with the University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences in Little Rock.

The number of people hospitalized in 2010 alone represented a 46 percent jump from 1998, according to estimates Pant and his colleagues produced using a national hospital database. Read more