No other antiarrhythmic showed a significant effect on mortality compared with controls .
Class IA , IC , and III drugs are effective in maintaining sinus rhythm but increase adverse effects , and class IA drugs may increase mortality
BACKGROUND A variety of antiarrhythmic drugs have been used to prevent recurrence of atrial fibrillation after conversion to sinus rhythm .
We performed a systematic review to determine the effect of long-term treatment with those drugs on death , embolisms , adverse effects , and atrial fibrillation recurrence .
Disopyramide in the maintenance of sinus rhythm after electroconversion of atrial fibrillation. A placebo-controlled one-year follow-up study.
In this multicentre study , 90 patients who left hospital in sinus rhythm after electroconversion of atrial fibrillation were r and omized to double-blind treatment with either disopyramide ( n = 44 ) or placebo ( n = 46 ) . The groups were comparable regarding age and sex distribution , duration of atrial fibrillation , heart volume and NYHA-classification . Life-table analysis was used to estimate the percentage of patients still in sinus rhythm and tolerating treatment at control visits after 1 , 3 , 6 , 9 and 12 months . After 1 month there was already a significant difference ( P less than 0.01 ) between the two groups ( disopyramide 70 % , placebo 39 % ) , a difference that was still remaining after 12 months ( disopyramide 54 % , placebo 30 % ) . Twenty-four patients , all relapsing to atrial fibrillation before six months on placebo , were converted to sinus rhythm once again . They were then treated with disopyramide in an open manner and after 12 months 37 % were still in sinus rhythm . From the results of this study , disopyramide seems to be a useful drug in maintaining sinus rhythm after electroconversion of atrial fibrillation
No other antiarrhythmic showed a significant effect on mortality compared with controls .
Class IA , IC , and III drugs are effective in maintaining sinus rhythm but increase adverse effects , and class IA drugs may increase mortality
BACKGROUND A variety of antiarrhythmic drugs have been used to prevent recurrence of atrial fibrillation after conversion to sinus rhythm .
We performed a systematic review to determine the effect of long-term treatment with those drugs on death , embolisms , adverse effects , and atrial fibrillation recurrence .