Early Cardioversion for Acute Atrial Fibrillation in Low Stroke Risk Patients Is Safe Without Anticoagulation

Oral anti-coagulants use in Chinese hospitalized patients with atrial fibrillation

BACKGROUND

Oral anti-coagulants (OAC) are the intervention for the prevention of stroke, which consistently improve clinical outcomes and survival among patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). The main purpose of this study is to identify problems in OAC utilization among hospitalized patients with AF in China.

METHODS

Using data from the Improving Care for Cardiovascular Disease in China-Atrial Fibrillation (CCC-AF) registry, guideline-recommended OAC use in eligible patients was assessed.

RESULTS

A total of 52,530 patients with non-valvular AF were enrolled from February 2015 to December 2019, of whom 38,203 were at a high risk of stroke, 9717 were at a moderate risk, and 4610 were at a low risk. On admission, only 20.0% (6075/30,420) of patients with a diagnosed AF and a high risk of stroke were taking OAC. The use of pre-hospital OAC on admission was associated with a lower risk of new-onset ischemic stroke/transient ischemic attack among the diagnosed AF population (adjusted odds ratio: 0.54, 95% confidence interval: 0.43-0.68; P  <0.001). At discharge, the prescription rate of OAC was 45.2% (16,757/37,087) in eligible patients with high stroke risk and 60.7% (2778/4578) in eligible patients with low stroke risk. OAC utilization in patients with high stroke risk on admission or at discharge both increased largely over time (all P  <0.001). Multivariate analysis showed that OAC utilization at discharge was positively associated with in-hospital rhythm control strategies, including catheter ablation (adjusted odds ratio [OR] 11.63, 95% confidence interval [CI] 10.04-13.47; P <0.001), electronic cardioversion (adjusted OR 2.41, 95% CI 1.65-3.51; P <0.001), and anti-arrhythmic drug use (adjusted OR 1.45, 95% CI 1.38-1.53; P <0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

In hospitals participated in the CCC-AF project, >70% of AF patients were at a high risk of stroke. Although poor performance on guideline-recommended OAC use was found in this study, over time the CCC-AF project has made progress in stroke prevention in the Chinese AF population.Registration:ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02309398.

How to Optimize Cardioversion of Atrial Fibrillation

Cardioversion (CV) is an essential component of rhythm control strategy in the treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF). Timing of CV is an important manageable factor in optimizing the safety and efficacy of CV. Based on observational studies, the success rate of CV seems to be best (≈95%) at 12−48 h after the onset of arrhythmic symptoms compared with a lower success rate of ≈85% in later elective CV. Early AF recurrences are also less common after acute CV compared with later elective CV. CV causes a temporary increase in the risk of thromboembolic complications. Effective anticoagulation reduces this risk, especially during the first 2 weeks after successful CV. However, even during therapeutic anticoagulation, each elective CV increases the risk of stroke 4-fold (0.4% vs. 0.1%) during the first month after the procedure, compared with acute (<48 h) CV or avoiding CV. Spontaneous CVs are common during the early hours of AF. The short wait-and-see approach, up to 24−48 h, is a reasonable option for otherwise healthy but mildly symptomatic patients who are using therapeutic anticoagulation, since they are most likely to have spontaneous rhythm conversion and have no need for active CV. The probability of early treatment failure and antiarrhythmic treatment options should be evaluated before proceeding to CV to avoid the risks of futile CVs.

The efficacy and safety of amiodarone combined with beta-blockers in the maintenance of sinus rhythm for atrial fibrillation: A protocol for systematic review and network meta-analysis

BACKGROUND

The high recurrence rate of atrial fibrillation (AF) after recovering sinus rhythm has always been a clinical problem. Despite the established and widespread use of antiarrhythmic drugs, which one is better for maintaining sinus rhythm is still controversial. This study aims to summarize the randomized controlled trials (RCTs) of amiodarone combined with beta blockers to maintain sinus rhythm in AF, and to determine an effective and safe intervention for the prevention of AF recurrence through network meta-analysis (NMA).

METHODS AND ANALYSIS

A comprehensive search of the RCTs comparing amiodarone with different beta-blockers to maintain sinus rhythm of AF patients will be conducted from the inception to December 2019 in the Cochrane Library, PubMed, Web of Science, EMBASE, Chinese Biomedical Literature Database (SinoMed), Chinese National Knowledge Infrastructure (CNKI), and WanFang database. The primary outcomes will be the recurrence of AF and frequency of embolization complications. The secondary outcomes will be the symptom improvements and adverse events. Risk of bias assessment of the included RCTs will be conducted according to the Cochrane collaboration's risk of bias tool. Pairwise meta-analyses and Bayesian network meta-analyses will be performed for all related outcome measures. GRADE will be used to evaluate the quality of evidence.

RESULTS

The results of this NMA will be published in a peer-reviewed journal.

CONCLUSION

This NMA may provide more recommendations for patients and researchers, such as which treatment is better for a particular case of AF, and what may be the hotspots for the future studies.

PROSPERO REGISTRATION NUMBER

The protocol for this NMA has been registered on PROSPERO under the number CRD42020164438.