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Vitamin C for preventing atrial fibrillation in high risk patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis

Overview of attention for article published in BMC Cardiovascular Disorders, February 2017
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  • In the top 5% of all research outputs scored by Altmetric
  • One of the highest-scoring outputs from this source (#6 of 1,935)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age (97th percentile)
  • High Attention Score compared to outputs of the same age and source (99th percentile)

Mentioned by

news
11 news outlets
blogs
2 blogs
twitter
17 X users
facebook
7 Facebook pages
wikipedia
1 Wikipedia page
googleplus
3 Google+ users
reddit
1 Redditor

Citations

dimensions_citation
72 Dimensions

Readers on

mendeley
96 Mendeley
citeulike
1 CiteULike
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Title
Vitamin C for preventing atrial fibrillation in high risk patients: a systematic review and meta-analysis
Published in
BMC Cardiovascular Disorders, February 2017
DOI 10.1186/s12872-017-0478-5
Pubmed ID
Authors

Harri Hemilä, Timo Suonsyrjä

Abstract

Atrial fibrillation (AF), a common arrhythmia contributing substantially to cardiac morbidity, is associated with oxidative stress and, being an antioxidant, vitamin C might influence it. We searched the Cochrane CENTRAL Register, MEDLINE, and Scopus databases for randomised trials on vitamin C that measured AF as an outcome in high risk patients. The two authors independently assessed the trials for inclusion, assessed the risk of bias, and extracted data. We pooled selected trials using the Mantel-Haenszel method for the risk ratio (RR) and the inverse variance weighting for the effects on continuous outcomes. We identified 15 trials about preventing AF in high-risk patients, with 2050 subjects. Fourteen trials examined post-operative AF (POAF) in cardiac surgery patients and one examined the recurrence of AF in cardioversion patients. Five trials were carried out in the USA, five in Iran, three in Greece, one in Slovenia and one in Russia. There was significant heterogeneity in the effect of vitamin C in preventing AF. In 5 trials carried out in the USA, vitamin C did not prevent POAF with RR = 1.04 (95% CI: 0.86-1.27). In nine POAF trials conducted outside of the USA, vitamin C decreased its incidence with RR = 0.56 (95% CI: 0.47-0.67). In the single cardioversion trial carried out in Greece, vitamin C decreased the risk of AF recurrence by RR = 0.13 (95% CI: 0.02-0.92). In the non-US cardiac surgery trials, vitamin C decreased the length of hospital stay by 12.6% (95% CI 8.4-16.8%) and intensive care unit (ICU) stay by 8.0% (95% CI 3.0-13.0%). The US trials found no effect on hospital stay and ICU stay. No adverse effects from vitamin C were reported in the 15 trials. Our meta-analysis indicates that vitamin C may prevent post-operative atrial fibrillation in some countries outside of the USA, and it may also shorten the duration of hospital stay and ICU stay of cardiac surgery patients. Vitamin C is an essential nutrient that is safe and inexpensive. Further research is needed to determine the optimal dosage protocol and to identify the patient groups that benefit the most.

X Demographics

X Demographics

The data shown below were collected from the profiles of 17 X users who shared this research output. Click here to find out more about how the information was compiled.
Mendeley readers

Mendeley readers

The data shown below were compiled from readership statistics for 96 Mendeley readers of this research output. Click here to see the associated Mendeley record.

Geographical breakdown

Country Count As %
Finland 1 1%
Unknown 95 99%

Demographic breakdown

Readers by professional status Count As %
Student > Master 17 18%
Researcher 12 13%
Student > Ph. D. Student 7 7%
Student > Bachelor 6 6%
Other 6 6%
Other 24 25%
Unknown 24 25%
Readers by discipline Count As %
Medicine and Dentistry 37 39%
Agricultural and Biological Sciences 10 10%
Biochemistry, Genetics and Molecular Biology 6 6%
Nursing and Health Professions 6 6%
Pharmacology, Toxicology and Pharmaceutical Science 1 1%
Other 6 6%
Unknown 30 31%
Attention Score in Context

Attention Score in Context

This research output has an Altmetric Attention Score of 103. This is our high-level measure of the quality and quantity of online attention that it has received. This Attention Score, as well as the ranking and number of research outputs shown below, was calculated when the research output was last mentioned on 06 March 2024.
All research outputs
#409,663
of 25,424,630 outputs
Outputs from BMC Cardiovascular Disorders
#6
of 1,935 outputs
Outputs of similar age
#8,989
of 425,113 outputs
Outputs of similar age from BMC Cardiovascular Disorders
#1
of 39 outputs
Altmetric has tracked 25,424,630 research outputs across all sources so far. Compared to these this one has done particularly well and is in the 98th percentile: it's in the top 5% of all research outputs ever tracked by Altmetric.
So far Altmetric has tracked 1,935 research outputs from this source. They receive a mean Attention Score of 4.2. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its peers.
Older research outputs will score higher simply because they've had more time to accumulate mentions. To account for age we can compare this Altmetric Attention Score to the 425,113 tracked outputs that were published within six weeks on either side of this one in any source. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 97% of its contemporaries.
We're also able to compare this research output to 39 others from the same source and published within six weeks on either side of this one. This one has done particularly well, scoring higher than 99% of its contemporaries.