The Vanderbilt AFib research team enjoyed reading the editorial response to the article, “Mortality among patients with early-onset atrial fibrillation and rare variants in cardiomyopathy and arrhythmia genes,” authored by Drs. Elizabeth McNally Sadiya Khan from Northwestern University.
Published in JAMA Cardiology, the authors note that our work and other studies of atrial fibrillation recognize that AFib may be the first sign of having a disease-associated variant in a gene related to cardiomyopathy. They write: “Genetic testing is well positioned to inform clinical management through stratification of patients with (early-onset atrial fibrillation) into lower and higher risk for AFib recurrence, other arrhythmias, and progression to (heart failure).”
It is the mission of the Vanderbilt Atrial Fibrillation Precision Medicine Research Program to bring personalized medicine to atrial fibrillation care, and recognition of our research is one step toward bringing that vision into reality. Thank you, Drs. McNally and Khan for recognizing this.