„Despite good progress in the management of patients with atrial fibrillation (AF), this arrhythmia remains one of the major causes of stroke, heart failure, sudden death, and cardiovascular morbidity in the world. Furthermore, the number of patients with AF is predicted to rise steeply in the coming years. To meet the growing demand for effective care of patients with AF, new information is continually generated and published, and the last few years have seen substantial progress. Therefore, it seems timely to publish this 2nd edition of the ESC guidelines on AF.”
„Reflecting the multidisciplinary input into the management of patients with AF, the Task Force includes cardiologists with varying subspecialty expertise, cardiac surgeons, stroke neurologists, and specialist nurses amongst its members. Supplementing the evidence review as outlined in the preamble, this Task Force defined three Population, Intervention, Comparison, Outcome, Time (PICOT) questions on relevant topics for the guidelines. The ESC commissioned external systematic reviews to answer these questions, and these reviews have informed specific recommendations.
Further to adhering to the standards for generating recommendations that are common to all ESC guidelines (see preamble), this Task Force discussed each draft recommendation during web-based conference calls dedicated to specific chapters, followed by consensus modifications and an online vote on each recommendation. Only recommendations that were supported by at least 75% of the Task Force members were included in the guidelines.
We hope that these guidelines will help to deliver good care to all patients with AF based on the current state-of-the-art evidence in 2016.”