Transforming atrial fibrillation management by targeting comorbidities and reducing atrial fibrillation burden: the 10th AFNET/EHRA consensus conference
EP Europace Journal
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.
Contributors
Emma Svennberg
Author
Eric Boersma
Author
Mina Chung
Author
Janice Chyou
Author
Ariel Cohen
Author
Jens Cosedis Nielsen
Author
Dobromir Dobrev
Author
Wolfram Doehner
Author
Elke Dworatzek
Author
Claudio Gimpelewicz
Author
Guido Hack
Author
Stéphane Hatem
Author
Jeff Healey
Author
Anders Gaarsdal Holst
Author
Leif Hove-Madsen
Author
Roderick van Leerdam
Author
Dominik Linz
Author
Gregory Y H Lip
Author
University of Liverpool Liverpool , United Kingdom of Great Britain & Northern Ireland
Steven Lubitz
Author
Ralf Meyer
Author
Michal Orczykowski
Author
Abdul Shokor Parwani
Author
Ursula Ravens
Author
Andreas Rillig
Author
Lena Rivard
Author
Ulrich Schotten
Author
Moritz Sinner
Author
Gerhard Steinbeck
Author
Daniel Steven
Author
Goetz Thomalla
Author
Tobias Toennis
Author
Stylianos Tzeis
Author
Niels Voigt
Author
Institute of Pharmacology and Toxicology, University Medical Center Goettingen Goettingen , Germany
Manish Wadhwa
Author
Reza Wakili
Author
Henning Witt
Author
Andreas Goette
Author
