Atrial fibrillation in diabetes: A cause for concern?*

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is one of the most common cardiac arrhythmias and is associated with sig-nificant morbidity and mortality. It is becom-ing increasingly evident diabetes is a significant risk factor for the development of AF. The rea-son for this link is not clearly understood, how-ever it is clear that other co-morbid diseases associated with diabetes such as hypertension and obesity may be implicated or there may be direct arrthymogenic affects of glucose dys-regulation on the myocardium. The development of AF in patients with diabetes may be an omi-nous sign given the increased risk of death from cardiovascular disease and we propose this is an under researched area where treatments may bring benefits over and above those patients without diabetes in terms of morbidity or death from cardiovascular disease