Prognosis in patients with atrial fibrillation and a presumed ``temporary cause'' in a community-based cohort study

{Atrial fibrillation (AF) may be related to acute and temporary causes, whether cardiovascular or non-cardiovascular. It remains unclear whether the risk of ischemic stroke is different in this setting, and whether antithrombotic management should be different in these patients. The objective of the study was to describe and compare the risk of stroke in AF patients with and with no such temporary precipitating cause. Among 8962 patients with AF seen between 2000 and 2010, we focused our analysis on 4587 patients with non-permanent AF, of whom 740 (16 %) had at least one possible temporary cause of AF. During a mean follow-up of 944 days (median 451, interquartile range 8-1624), the adjusted rates of stroke/TE were non-significantly different between patients with a temporary cause of AF and other AF patients (HR = 1.08, 95 % CI 0.82-1.41