A plea for provisional stenting.

its favour compared to other drugs, and mild bradycardia was the commonest finding in this study. However, selecting patients with predictors of nonconversion at the outset for administration of intravenous amiodarone, while observing the remaining and administering amiodarone to those still in fibrillation after 8 h may be a more effective strategy. DC cardioversion could then be considered in those resistant to 24 h of intravenous amiodarone at 125 mg . h . The natural course of paroxysms lasting more than 48 h is, however, undefined and may represent a group with a greater incidence of heart disease as well as lower response rates to pharmacological cardioversions; in such a group (historically identified) as well as those with shorter paroxysms resisting pharmacological cardioversion earlier electrical cardioversion may prevent or reduce electrical remodelling and perhaps the development of persistent atrial fibrillation. D. C. SHAH Hôpital Cardiologique du Haut-Lévêque, Bordeaux-Pressac, France