13th International Congress
THE "NEW FRONTIERS"
OF ARRHYTHMIAS 1998

January 24-31, 1998
Marilleva, Trento, Italy

RT-54

How to convert recent-onset atrial fibrillation to sinus rhythm? Efficacy and safety of different drug protocols

Giuseppe Boriani, Mauro Biffi, Alessandro Capucci*, Gianluca Botto**, Tiziana Broffoni**, Maurizio Ongari°, Giuseppe Trisolino°°°, Ida Rubino°°, Mario Sanguinetti°°, Angelo Branzi, Bruno Magnani.
Institute of Cardiology, University of Bologna; *Civil Hospitals Piacenza, **Como, °Porretta, °°Lugo, °°°Dept. of Emergency, S. Orsola Hospital, Bologna, Italy

Abstract

In a patient population of 417 patients (pts) the efficacy and safety of different therapeutic strategies for converting recent-onset atrial fibrillation (AF) (<7 days duration) to sinus rhythm (SR) were evaluated. All the pts were in NYHA Class < 2, without signs or symptoms of heart failure and were hospitalised. According to the results of this evaluation the following conclusions can be drawn: 1) intravenous amiodarone is not effective at short term in this kind of patient population; 2) intravenous propafenone achieves a higher efficacy within 1 hour compared to oral loading schedules (either with propafenone or flecainide) but without different efficacies at 3 and 8 hours; 3) oral loading with propafenone or flecainide is a valid alternative to conventional protocols in hospitalised patients; 4) the evaluation of placebo effect is mandatory for the study of recent-onset AF.

Key Words

Atrial fibrillation 
recent onset, conversion of atrial fibrillation to sinus rhythm, drug protocols, Framingham study, OA