I think what you are trying to say is that - you think there may be varying "degrees" of PAF and that certain types may be less risky? That is something that certainly can be debated, but at least most of the of thinking so far is that any presence of PAF, aside from isolated episodes after cardiothoracic surgery, carries the same, if similar risk.
I think the way my stroke colleagues look at it, is sort of the other way around - more like PAF is PAF, and as far as they can tell, based on current data, there is relatively few stratification levels that the current medical data can tell us. Meanwhile, the current assumption of risk from PAF, is so high, vs. the risk of anticoagulation (adjusted for individual patient, i.e. maybe not the patients with coagulopathies or risk of falls) that they view NOT anticoagulation as a higher risk. Because if one is wrong about it, the result is paralysis, coma or worse. If there are cheaper ways of detecting AF, all the better.
But overall, anticoagulation decisions aside, think about it - this is a potentially a cheap way to passively screen for the condition in the population. Orders of magnitude so, and possibly w/ more accuracy than a typical holter monitor or even the newer implantable devices (which in all probability use simpler rhythm analysis). Even if you are worried about the potential existence of differing levels of AF, the wealth of new data should go a long way towards further understanding AF and figuring out whether differing levels of risk exist.
I think the way my stroke colleagues look at it, is sort of the other way around - more like PAF is PAF, and as far as they can tell, based on current data, there is relatively few stratification levels that the current medical data can tell us. Meanwhile, the current assumption of risk from PAF, is so high, vs. the risk of anticoagulation (adjusted for individual patient, i.e. maybe not the patients with coagulopathies or risk of falls) that they view NOT anticoagulation as a higher risk. Because if one is wrong about it, the result is paralysis, coma or worse. If there are cheaper ways of detecting AF, all the better.
But overall, anticoagulation decisions aside, think about it - this is a potentially a cheap way to passively screen for the condition in the population. Orders of magnitude so, and possibly w/ more accuracy than a typical holter monitor or even the newer implantable devices (which in all probability use simpler rhythm analysis). Even if you are worried about the potential existence of differing levels of AF, the wealth of new data should go a long way towards further understanding AF and figuring out whether differing levels of risk exist.