Vericiguat Use and Incident Atrial Fibrillation in Chronic Heart Failure

This ambispective observational cohort study aims to evaluate the association between vericiguat treatment and incident atrial fibrillation in patients with chronic heart failure. Adult patients treated at Beijing Tsinghua Changgung Hospital between November 2023 and December 2026 will be included, with data collected retrospectively before January 2025 and prospectively thereafter. Patients will be classified according to vericiguat use during routine clinical care. The non-vericiguat group will include patients receiving contemporary guideline-directed medical therapy for chronic heart failure without vericiguat. Treatment decisions will be made by treating physicians rather than assigned by the study investigators. The primary outcome is incident atrial fibrillation during follow-up, including atrial fibrillation, atrial flutter, and subclinical atrial fibrillation. Secondary outcomes include all-cause death and major adverse cardiovascular events.