 Conen et al. demonstrated that mortality risk in AF patients is partly mediated by the development of non-fatal stroke, HF, and MI. However, they did not investigate differences in the cumulative incidence of these conditions between different patient groups e.g. men and women, or the relationship between potential prognostic factors and the development of these conditions. Sets of prognostic factors for stroke and HF in AF patients have been defined through the development of prognostic models, but these models were developed specifically for each condition so it is unclear whether these prognostic factors are associated with increased risk of a particular condition, or simply any major adverse cardiovascular event. Additionally, some potentially important prognostic factors were not evaluated in these studies e.g. anaemia and kidney failure. 