67 Central European Journal of Clinical Research Volume 1, Issue 1, Pages 67-75 DOI: 10.2478/cejcr-2018-0008 ORIGINAL PAPER Atrial fbrillation a benign condition? Quality of life approach Otilia Anca Țica 1 , Ovidiu Țica 2,3 , Adrian Hatos 4 , Larisa Roșan 1,3 , Mircea Ioachim Popescu 1,3 1 Cardiology Clinic, Emergency County Clinical Hospital of Oradea, Oradea, Romania 2 Pathology Department, Emergency County Clinical Hospital of Oradea, Oradea, Romania 3 Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy Oradea, Oradea, Romania 4 Faculty of Sociological Sciences, University of Oradea, Oradea, Romania Correspondence to: Țica Ovidiu, Assistant Professor, Emergency County Clinical Hospital of Oradea, Pathology Depart- ment; Faculty of Medicine and Pharmacy Oradea, Oradea, Romania Contact address: Romania, Oradea, Anatole France Street, no. 70, 410482. E-mail: ovidiu.tica@gmail.com Conficts of interests Nothing to declare Acknowledgment None Funding: This research did not receive any specifc grant from funding agencies in the public, commercial or not-for proft sectors. Keywords: atrial fbrillation; quality of life; comorbidities; anticoagulants; mortality. These authors take responsibility for all aspects of the reliability and freedom from bias of the data pre- sented and their discussed interpretation. Central Eur J Clin Res 2018;1(1):67-75 _____________________________________________________________________________ Received: 29.05.2018, Accepted: 3.07.2018, Published: 1.09.2018 Copyright © 2018 Central European Journal of Clinical Research. This is an open-access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Abstract Introduction: Atrial fbrillation (AF) is the most frequent cardiac rhythm disorder, consid- ered until recently benign. Due to its major com- plications (cardio-embolic episodes) patients need to be anticoagulated. Aim: To assess the quality of life (QOL) in patients with new oral an- ticoagulants (NOAC) versus those using clas- sical anticoagulants (VKA). Methods: A total of 483 patients admitted consecutively in our clinic were evaluated during hospitalization and after discharge. Follow-up visits were conducted: at baseline, 6, 12, 18 and 24 months; the quality of life (QoL) was measured by a specifc ques- tionnaire (EQ-5D-3L), and the results were as- sessed. Patients were divided in two groups considering their anticoagulant use: NOAC or VKA. Baseline characteristics, clinical outcomes as well as QoL indices were compared between the two groups The current research has been conducted in accordance with the ethical prin-