Moreover all the anti-arrhythmic agents that are used in treatment of AF were potentially pro-arrhythmic especially in patients with coronary artery disease and structurally abnormal heart .
Although atrial fibrillation ( AF ) is the most common sustained arrhythmia seen during daily cardiovascular physician practice , its management remained a challenge for cardiology physician as there was no single anti-arrhythmic agents proved to be effective in converting atrial fibrillation and kept its effectiveness in maintaining sinus rhythm over long term .
Some of these drugs also have serious non cardiac side effects that limit its long term use in the management of atrial fibrillation .
Several new and investigational anti-arrhythmic agents are emerging but data supporting their effectiveness and safety are still limited .
Conversion efficacy and safety of intravenous ibutilide compared with intravenous procainamide in patients with atrial flutter or fibrillation.
OBJECTIVES This multicenter study compared the efficacy and safety of ibutilide versus procainamide for conversion of recent-onset atrial flutter or fibrillation . BACKGROUND Ibutilide fumarate is an intravenous ( IV ) class III antiarrhythmic agent that has been shown to be significantly more effective than placebo in the pharmacologic conversion of atrial flutter and fibrillation to sinus rhythm . Procainamide is commonly used for conversion of recent-onset atrial fibrillation to normal sinus rhythm . METHODS One hundred twenty-seven patients ( age range 22 to 92 years ) with atrial flutter or fibrillation of 3 h to 90 days ' ( mean 21 days ) duration were r and omized to receive either two 10-min IV infusions of 1 mg of ibutilide fumarate , separated by a 10-min infusion of 5 % dextrose in sterile water , or three successive 10-min IV infusions of 400 mg of procainamide hydrochloride . RESULTS Of the 127 patients , 120 were evaluated for efficacy : 35 ( 58.3 % ) of 60 in the ibutilide group compared with 11 ( 18.3 % ) of 60 in the procainamide group had successful termination within 1.5 h of treatment ( p < 0.0001 ) . Seven patients were found to have violated the protocol and were not included in the final evaluation . In the patients with atrial flutter , ibutilide had a significantly higher success rate than procainamide ( 76 % [ 13 of 17 ] vs. 14 % [ 3 of 22 ] , p=0.001 ) . Similarly , in the atrial fibrillation group , ibutilide had a significantly higher success rate than procainamide ( 51 % [ 22 of 43 ] vs. 21 % [ 8 of 38 ] , p=0.005 ) . One patient who received ibutilide , which was found to be a protocol violation , had sustained polymorphic ventricular tachycardia requiring direct current cardioversion . Seven patients who received procainamide became hypotensive . CONCLUSIONS This study establishes the superior efficacy of ibutilide over procainamide when administered to patients to convert either atrial fibrillation or atrial flutter to sinus rhythm .  Hypotension was the major adverse effect seen with procainamide . A low incidence of serious proarrhythmia was seen with the administration of ibutilide occurring at the end of infusion
Moreover all the anti-arrhythmic agents that are used in treatment of AF were potentially pro-arrhythmic especially in patients with coronary artery disease and structurally abnormal heart .
Although atrial fibrillation ( AF ) is the most common sustained arrhythmia seen during daily cardiovascular physician practice , its management remained a challenge for cardiology physician as there was no single anti-arrhythmic agents proved to be effective in converting atrial fibrillation and kept its effectiveness in maintaining sinus rhythm over long term .
Some of these drugs also have serious non cardiac side effects that limit its long term use in the management of atrial fibrillation .
Several new and investigational anti-arrhythmic agents are emerging but data supporting their effectiveness and safety are still limited .