Hospitalizaciones asociadas al diagnóstico de fibrilación auricular en Chile: Tendencia creciente en la última década

background: hospitalization for atrial fibrillation (af) is reported to be increasing worldwide, becoming a cardiovascular health problem. scarce data on this subject is available in chile. aim: to describe hospitalizations related to af in chile. method: the discharge diagnosis of af (icd i48)was obtained form the ministry of health reports. only data from 2002 through 2007 was available. gender, age and location (regions) were analyzed. a projection derived form the last population census was used to estimate rates per 10.000 people discharged with a diagnosis of af results: the rate of discharges with a diagnosis of af increased from 2.2 per 10.000 in 2002 to 2.8 per 10.000 in 2007. male and female rates were 2.2 and 2.1 respectively in 2002, increasing to 2.8 and 2.7 in 2007. the rate of af discharge remained approximately constant for those under 40 years of age. in contrast, the corresponding rates for 2002 and 2007 increased from 2.9 to 3.6 for those aged 40-64, 14.2 to 18.5 for those aged 65-79 and 32.4 to 43.7 for those over 80. af discharge rates did no vary in regions i to iii while they increased from 2.3 to 3.5 in regions x to xii. conclusion: the rate of discharge with a diagnosis of af has increased in chile approximately 25% from 2002 to 2007. this phenomenon is more marked in those over 65 years of age and those living in the southern regions of the country.