Pain and Inflammatory Biomarkers in Symptomatic Atrial Fibrillation: A Case-Control Study

Aim:
To study levels of biomarkers associated with pain in patients with symptomatic atrial fibrillation (AF) in relation to the severity of symptoms from AF.

Background:
AF is the most common cardiac arrhythmia and exhibits significant symptom variability. One-third of patients report no symptoms, whereas up to one-quarter suffer from severe symptoms due to AF. The underlying mechanisms of AF symptomatology remain poorly understood, but the significance of pain sensitisation is emerging. Several biomarkers relating to pain and inflammation have previously been shown to be elevated in certain health conditions and, if the same is true for AF, we may unlock a new level of understanding of the disease.

Outcomes:
We have previously shown that patients with symptomatic AF exhibit lower pain thresholds and affected pain signaling pathways. We expect to further confirm the significance of pain mechanisms in AF by demonstrating increased levels of pain and inflammatory biomarkers in patients with highly symptomatic AF compared to age- and sex-matched controls without AF.

Status: Ongoing

The project owner is X-HiDE - Örebro University (oru.se)

Contact: X-HiDE@oru.se