Washington, May 25 : New-onset of atrial fibrillation significantly increases the risk of death and cardiovascular events among otherwise healthy women, according to a new research.

"We knew that atrial fibrillation was associated with an increase risk of death in most cases, but in this study we found that even in a population of women who were mostly healthy and did not have established cardiovascular disease, the diagnosis of atrial fibrillation increased the incidence of death by about 2 fold," said Christine Albert, a cardiac electrophysiologist at Brigham and Women''s Hospital and senior author of the paper.

"Although the risk of death was elevated, the absolute risk of death among the women with AF in this healthy population was relatively low.

Researchers monitored more than 34,000 women participating in the Women''s Health Study for approximately 15 years. The women were primarily white and over the age of 45. During that time period, 1,011 women developed atrial fibrillation. Approximately 2.1 percent of the deaths in the entire population could be attributed to the development of atrial fibrillation.

Researchers also found that women with atrial fibrillation experienced a higher risk of cardiovascular events such as heart attack, stroke and congestive heart failure. In fact, much of the elevation in risk of death could be explained by the development of these potentially preventable and treatable medical conditions.

The study was published recently in the Journal of the American Medical Association. (ANI)