“The effect can’t possibly be due to increased compliance with medications, but rather it’s a true effect of the weight loss itself. So I think this is a true clinical effect and not an epiphenomenon,” he replied.
Dr. Pathak added that he and his coinvestigators are organizing a randomized controlled confirmatory study.
Dr. Prediman K. Shah
Dr. Prediman K. Shah, who chaired a press conference where the LEGACY study was highlighted, said the study provided him with one of the major take-home lessons from ACC 15.
“We can argue about the mechanism of atrial fibrillation till kingdom come, but the fact is that the association is very strong that weight loss is associated with a reduced burden of atrial fibrillation, and with a very robust magnitude of benefit. That’s one of the messages that I’ll take home with me from this meeting: The next time I see my fat patient with atrial fibrillation, I’m putting him on a weight-reducing diet as the first approach,” declared Dr. Shah, professor of medicine at UCLA and director of the Oppenheimer Atherosclerosis Research Center at Cedars-Sinai Medical Center in Los Angeles.
Dr. Pathak reported having no financial conflicts regarding this study, which was supported by university funds.
Simultaneously with Dr. Pathak’s presentation at ACC 15, the LEGACY study was published online (J. Am. Coll. Cardiol. 2015 [doi: 10.1016/j.jacc.2015.03.002])