Management of Atrial Fibrillation
Authors: Dennis L. Disch
Journal: Annals of Internal Medicine (1994)

Letters15 September 1994Management of Atrial FibrillationDennis L. Disch, Mark L. Greenberg, and Peter T. HolzbergerDennis L. DischWashington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110. Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH 03756.Search for more papers by this author, Mark L. GreenbergWashington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110. Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH 03756.Search for more papers by this author, and Peter T. HolzbergerWashington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110. Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH 03756.Search for more papers by this authorAuthor, Article, and Disclosure Informationhttps://doi.org/10.7326/0003-4819-121-6-199409150-00030 SectionsAboutFull TextPDF ToolsAdd to favoritesDownload CitationsTrack CitationsPermissions ShareFacebookTwitterLinkedInRedditEmail IN RESPONSE:Although the randomized trials of warfarin in atrial fibrillation to which Brodsky and colleagues refer did report “all-cause” mortality, we only abstracted rates of stroke, major bleeding events, and fatalities to estimate these probabilities for our decision model. For the hypothetical cohorts of patients assigned to the “warfarin” or “no treatment” strategies, the “die from other causes” arm of the model represents a baseline population-based mortality rate, not all-cause mortality from the randomized trials. Similarly, for patients taking quinidine, all-cause mortality was not used. We calculated an “excess” mortality rate by subtracting the mortality for patients in the ...References1. Herre JM, Sauve MJ, Malone P, Griffin JC, Helmy I, Langberg JJ, et al. Long-term results of amiodarone therapy in patients with recurrent sustained ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation. J Am Coll Cardiol. 1989; 13:442-9. Google Scholar2. Kerin NZ, Aragon E, Faitel K, Frumin H, Rubenfire M, et al. Long-term efficacy and toxicity of high- and low-dose amiodarone regimens. J Clin Pharmacol. 1989; 29:418-23. Google Scholar3. Rakita L, Sobol SM, Mostow N, Vrobel T. Amiodarone pulmonary toxicity. Am Heart J. 1983; 106:906. Google Scholar4. Dusman RE, Stanton MS, Miles WM, Klein LS, Zipes DP, Fineberg NS et al. Clinical features of amiodarone-induced pulmonary toxicity. Circulation. 1990; 82:51-9. Google Scholar5. The CASCADE Investigators. Randomized antiarrhythmic drug therapy in survivors of cardiac arrest (the CASCADE study). Am J Cardiol. 1993; 72:280-7. Google Scholar Author, Article, and Disclosure InformationAffiliations: Washington University School of Medicine, St. Louis, MO 63110. Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center, Lebanon, NH 03756. PreviousarticleNextarticle Advertisement FiguresReferencesRelatedDetails Metrics 15 September 1994Volume 121, Issue 6Page: 466-467KeywordsAtrial fibrillationCohort studiesDeath ratesHypertensionMedical risk factorsMortalityPopulation statisticsRandomized trialsStrokeToxicity ePublished: 15 August 2000 Issue Published: 15 September 1994 Copyright & PermissionsCopyright © 1994 by American College of Physicians. All Rights Reserved.PDF downloadLoading ...