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The LOSE-AF study, funded by the National Institute for Health and Care Research, Oxford Biomedical Research Centre and the British Heart Foundation, enrolled 118 patients aged 60 to 85 with persistent AF and overweight or obesity. All the participants had been referred by their doctor for cardioversion (a medical procedure that involves using a controlled electrical shock to the heart to restore normal heart rhythm). Participants were randomly assigned either to a commercial low-calorie diet and behavioural support programme for eight months, or to usual care with written advice about weight loss for the same period.
After eight months, those in the diet programme had lost an around 10kg (approximately 10% of body weight), compared to around 3kg in the usual care group. A difference in weight between the groups was still evident at 3.5 years.
The dietary weight loss and behavioural support program was safe, with no reported serious adverse events related to the intervention or any reduction in physical performance. However, the intervention and associated weight loss did not result in any meaningful differences in AF-related symptoms, AF burden, or changes in the structure and function of participants' hearts. Participants allocated to the diet programme had similar rates of AF recurrence and requirements for repeat heart rhythm procedures as the control group over a median follow-up of approximately 3.5 years.
Read the full story on the Radcliffe Department of Medicine website.