RT-138
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Predictors of technical and
clinical failure of transthoracic electrical cardioversion of atrial fibrillation
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Giovanni Luca Botto, Alessandro
Politi, Walter Bonini, Tiziana Broffoni, Roberto Bonatti, Giovanni Ferrari.
Department of Cardiology, S. Anna Hospital, Como, Italy
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Introduction
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Cardioversion, either pharmacological or electrical,
remains a widely used and very successful clinical approach to terminate atrial
fibrillation (AF) and flutter1. In order to avoid
needless hospitalization, expose to potentially toxic drugs, and the unwarrented use of
invasive procedures, careful consideration must be given to the likelihood of restoring
sinus rhythm (SR) and maintaining it for a prolonged period of time following successful
cardioversion. The likelihood of restoring SR and its long-term maintenance appear to
depend on a number of key variables including the underlying heart disease, duration of
AF, left atrial size, and the chronic use of antiarrhythmic drugs2-6.
In the present study, we examined patients with stable AF to identify predictors of
successful cardioversion to SR and the overall clinical course after that.
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