Lubitz, Steven and Gimpelewicz, Claudio (2025) Transforming atrial fibrillation management by targeting comorbidities and reducing atrial fibrillation burden: the 10th AFNET/EHRA consensus conference. Europace : European pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac electrophysiology : journal of the working groups on cardiac pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac cellular electrophysiology of the European Society of Cardiology, 27 (12). ISSN 1532-2092

Abstract

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a growing unmet medical need. To reduce its impact on patients' lives, improvements in stroke prevention therapy, treatment of concomitant conditions, and rhythm control therapy are actively developed: Innovations in anti-thrombotic agents, new anti-arrhythmic drugs (AADs), and novel interventional rhythm control therapies emerge alongside AF-reducing effects of general cardiometabolic therapies. Simple risk scores are slowly replaced by personalized AF risk estimation using quantifiable features. These developments were discussed by over 80 experts from academia and industry during the 10th Atrial Fibrillation NETwork /European Heart Rhythm Association consensus conference from 5 to 7 May 2025. The emerging consensus, described here, is multi-domain therapy combining stroke prevention, rhythm control, and therapy of concomitant cardiovascular conditions. This combines anti-coagulants, AADs, and AF ablation with old and new cardiometabolic drugs that can reduce AF risk, AF burden, and AF-related complications at scale. The paper furthermore describes quantitative traits that may enable a shift towards risk-driven therapy based on AF phenotypes. These can enable adjusted therapy strategies that are safe, accessible, and patient-centred. Applying modern data science and artificial intelligence methods to quantitative phenotypic and genetic features can further improve risk estimation and personalized therapy selection. At the same time, translational and clinical research into reversing the drivers of AF and into improved stroke prevention through new drugs and through combination therapies is needed. Together, these efforts offer pathways towards personalized, patient-centred, multi-modal, and accessible AF management that integrates rhythm control, stroke prevention, and therapy of concomitant conditions to bridge today's practical needs with tomorrow's therapeutic innovation.

Item Type:	Article
Keywords:	Humans Atrial Fibrillation Anti-Arrhythmia Agents Stroke Comorbidity Catheter Ablation Risk Assessment Consensus Anticoagulants Risk Factors
Date Deposited:	20 Feb 2026 00:45
Last Modified:	20 Feb 2026 00:45
URI:	https://oak.novartis.com/id/eprint/59415