Genetic testing in patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) may identify those at higher risk of developing incident cardiomyopathy or heart failure, new research from the Netherlands suggested.
In a study that included two longitudinal cohorts (the All of Us Research program and the UK Biobank), the prevalence of inherited rare gene variants associated with cardiomyopathy was twice as high in patients with AF and up to five times as high in patients with early-onset AF, defined as that occurring in people younger than 45 years.
The analysis, of 44,182 patients with AF, also found those with gene variants associated with cardiomyopathy were at a higher risk for incident cardiomyopathy or heart failure after a diagnosis of AF — about 50%-70% higher compared with noncarriers — independent of clinical and polygenic…