BACKGROUND Persistent atrial fibrillation (AF) leads to electrical, structural and neurohormonal remodelling of the atria, including increased plasma B-type natriuretic peptide (BNP) level. AIM To assess the clinical value of plasma BNP or NT-proBNP concentrations in patients with persistent AF measured before and after sinus rhythm restoration following direct-current cardioversion. METHOD...

AIMS To determine whether magnesium given orally decreases the recurrence rate of atrial fibrillation after elective direct current cardioversion of persistent atrial fibrillation. METHODS AND RESULTS Consecutive outpatients were randomized to treatment with oral magnesium (10.3 mmol) or placebo twice daily in a double-blind fashion. Two groups were studied; magnesium study: 170 patients with...

BACKGROUND A minimally invasive surgery for treatment of atrial fibrillation was developed with bilateral pulmonary vein isolation, mapping, and ablation of the ganglionic plexi and excision of the left atrial appendage. A prospective multicenter registry was created to evaluate the outcomes. METHODS The procedure was performed through bilateral minithoracotomies with video assistance. It inc...

Thyroid hormones (TH) are powerful modulators of heart function, but their arrhythmogenic effects are less elucidated. We have examined both acute and long-term action of TH on the heart susceptibility to the ventricular fibrillation (VF) and on the heart ability to terminate VF and restore a sinus rhythm. Triiodothyronine (T3) was applied in the range of 10(-9)-10(-6) mol/l in acute experiment...

ATRIAL FIBRILLATION is the characteristic arrhythmia of the advanced stages of mitral stenosis, being present in 40 per cent of such cases. Paradoxically, mitral valve surgery, which relieves the obstruction and reduces the hemodynamic overload of the left atrium, frequently precipitates either transient or permanent atrial fibrillation. The reported incidence of this disorder after mitral oper...

Implantable antitachycardia devices suffer a high false-positive rate of delivery of therapy because current detection schemes based upon ventricular rate and rate variations are excessively sensitive at the cost of specificity. Several methods have been proposed for providing complementary information derived from morphologic analysis of intraventricular electrograms in order to increase speci...

BACKGROUND Sleep apnea is common in patients with atrial fibrillation, but the effect of the cardioversion of atrial fibrillation to sinus rhythm on central and obstructive apneas is mainly unknown. The primary aim of the study was to analyze the association between cardioversion of atrial fibrillation and sleep apneas, to investigate whether obstructive or central sleep apneas are reduced foll...

IN 1963 a study was published from our laboratory concerning cardiac performance during exercise before and after conversion from atrial fibrillation to sinus rhythm.' All subjects were receiving digitalis at the time of conversion. One of the findings of that study was a markedly low heart rate at exercise in sinus rhythm, much lower than expected for a group of subjects with a comparable degr...

BACKGROUND AND PURPOSE Stroke is the third leading cause of death in most Western countries. Cardioembolism might be responsible for 15% to 20% of ischemic strokes. Although atrial fibrillation can be diagnosed by electrocardiography, the remaining causes of cardioembolic stroke are diagnosed by echocardiography. Recent recommendations on the management of acute ischemic stroke fail to consider...