Atrial fibrillation as an important clinical condition of cognitive decline; diagnosis, comorbidities and severity of symptoms in patients with dementia.

Objective: To determine the time of dementia diagnosis, symptom intensity and to assess the comorbidities. Methods: 110 patients with dementia or mild cognitive impairment were enrolled in this retrospective study. The study group was divided into subgroups: patients with a maximum of three (S <= 3 n = 62) and four or more symptoms (S >= 4 n = 48). Baseline characteristics, disease duration and the number of comorbidities were analyzed. Results: The median time from the first symptoms to diagnosis [months] (FS-D) was 12.0, while from diagnosis to enrollment (D-E) was 42.66. The median time from D-E was significantly longer in S >= 4 and significant correlation was observed between the median time from D-E and number of symptoms [n] (R = 0.3240, p < 0.05). Significantly more patients were newly diagnosed with AF [%] [14.58 vs. 3.23, p = 0.032], Parkinson's disease [29.17 vs. 8.06, p = 0.004] and depression [31.25 vs. 6.45, p = 0.001] in S >= 4 compared to S <= 3, respectively. Conclusions: A considerable delay in the diagnosis of dementia was confirmed. Clinical features were associated with the disease duration and the severity of symptoms. Appropriate diagnosis of AF in patients with dementia is of great importance.