Figure 1.

Risk of stroke in AF. Patterns of recurrent AF may be classified as paroxysmal, persistent, or permanent. A hypothetical paradigm is displayed in which the probability of a given pattern of AF varies over the lifecourse of AF, with darker blue shading indicating a higher probability corresponding to a given pattern. Shared risk factors for incident AF and stroke are indicated, as are several mediators of stroke once a patient develops AF. The risk of stroke, displayed in red at the bottom of the figure, is greater once in AF as compared with sinus rhythm, and is generally similar across paroxysmal, persistent, and permanent patterns of AF.