Electrocardiographic Predictors of Atrial Fibrillation

Atrial fibrillation is arguably the most common heart rhythm disorder with increasing incidence and prevalence recently. Atrial fibrillation significantly contributes to increased mortality especially through the onset/worsening of heart failure and the occurrence of cardioembolic stroke. Identifying markers that could indicate the installation of this arrhythmia in a specific patient would warrant closer monitoring, establishing a preventive antiarrhythmic treatment or even timely anticoagulant treatment. This article reviews the electrocardiographic indicators of atrial fibrillation installation presented in recent literature. The databases in which the search was made were PubMed, Scopus and Google Scholar. The search terms used were “atrial fibrillation”, “supraventricular arrhythmias”, “electrocardiographic predictors”, “interatrial block”, “atrial extrasystoles”, “P wave dispersion”, “left atrial enlargement”. Most recent and relevant papers were included.