Document is current

Article History

Received: 24 October 2025

Accepted: 21 December 2025

First Online: 26 February 2026

Declarations

:

: The ethics committee of the Medical Faculty of the University Heidelberg as well as all local ethics committees approved the study protocol (S-088/2015). Patients were eligible for the study if they were 18 years or older and either the patient or a legal representative had provided consent. Informed consent could be waived if patients were not able to consent and died before a legal representative could be installed.

: Not applicable.

: J. Purrucker has received consultation fees and travel expenses from Abbott, Akcea, Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Daiichi Sankyo, and BMS/Pfizer, and he reports grants from the Federal Joint Committee within the Innovation Fund. K.-G. Häusler reports speaker´s honoraria, consulting fees, lecture honoraria and/or study grants from Abbott, Alexion, Amarin, AstraZeneca, Bayer Healthcare, Biotronik, Boehringer Ingelheim, Boston Scientific, Bristol-Myers Squibb, Daiichi Sankyo, Edwards Lifesciences, Medtronic, Novartis, Pfizer, Portola, Premier Research, Sanofi, SUN Pharma, and W.L. Gore and Associates. C. Nolte received honoraria for lectures by Alexion, Astra Zeneca, Bayer, BMS, Novartis and Pfizer. S. Poli Shas received research support from BMS/Pfizer, Boehringer-Ingelheim, Daiichi Sankyo, European Union, German Federal Joint Committee Innovation Fund, and German Federal Ministry of Education and Research, Helena Laboratories and Werfen as well as speakers’ honoraria/consulting fees from Alexion, AstraZeneca, Bayer, Boehringer-Ingelheim, BMS/Pfizer, Daiichi Sankyo, Portola, and Werfen. D. Michalski received honoraria from Bristol-Myers Squibb, Alexion, and AstraZeneca without reference to the presented work. G. Royl has received consultation fees and travel expenses from Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Daiichi Sankyo, BMS/Pfizer, Astra Zeneca, Novartis and Cardinal Health. J. Meyne received financial compensation for presentations from Pfizer and BMS. D. G. Nabavi has received speaker honoraria, consultation fees and travel expenses from Astra Zeneca, Bayer, BMS/Pfizer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Daiichi Sankyo, and Sanofi. T. Rizos received consulting honoraria, speakers’ honoraria and travel support from BMS Pfizer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Bayer HealthCare and Daiichi Sankyo. P. U. Heuschmann reports grants from the German Ministry of Research and Education, European Union, German Parkinson Society, University Hospital Würzburg, the German Heart Foundation, Federal Joint Committee within the Innovation Fund, German Research Foundation, Bavarian State, German Cancer Aid, Charité–Universitätsmedizin Berlin (within Mondafis; supported by an unrestricted research grant to the Charité from Bayer), University Göttingen (within FIND-AF; supported by an unrestricted research grant to the University Göttingen from Boehringer-Ingelheim), Bristol-Myers Squibb, Boehringer-Ingelheim, and Daiichi Sankyo), outside the submitted work. R. Veltkamp reports research support from Bayer, BMS-Pfizer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Daiichi Sankyo, Medtronic, Biogen. Honoraria for consultancies and lectures for Astra Zeneca, Bayer, BMS-Pfizer, Javelin, Portola, and he is an investigator of the Imperial BRC. All other authors reported no conflict of interest.