Gregory Marcus, MD, MAS, Reviews the Coffee and Real-time Atrial & Ventricular Ectopy (CRAVE) Trial

Coffee, conventional wisdom has long held, enhances cardiac activity, and despite years of research that has not definitively demonstrated a negative impact on heart rhythm, clinical guidelines suggest today that caffeine is an avoidable trigger of ectopy.

A prominent investigator into the effects of common exposures on cardiac arrhythmias, Greg Marcus, MD, MAS, discussed with Patient Care his newest findings on how coffee/caffeine impact cardiac ectopy, the results coming from the Coffee and Real-time Atrial and Ventricular Ectopy (CRAVE) trial, which he presented November 14 at the American Heart Association 2021 Scientific Sessions, held virtually, November 13-15, 2021.

Findings for coffee consumption were both positive--negligible effect on atrial arrhythmias and positive impact on activity (ie, step count) and negative--significant increase in premature ventricular contractions and negative impact on sleep.

Marcus is professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, and in addition to being a long-time arrhythmia researcher he is also keenly interested in harnessing data from wearable technology, particularly wearable sensors, to deepen scientific understanding and improve patient care.

He walked us through the CRAVE study, which capitalizes on data from several different types of sensors and in an N-of-1 study design, has participants serve as both case and control.

Gregory M Marcus, MD, MAS, is professor of medicine at the University of California, San Francisco, associate chief of cardiology for research at UCSF Health, and the inaugural Endowed Professor of Atrial Fibrillation Research. TW @gregorymmarcus

Reference: Marcus G, Rosenthal DG, Nah G, et al. The coffee and real-time atrial and ventricular ectopy (CRAVE) trial. Presented at the American Heart Association Scientific Sessions 2021.