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Europace 2006 8(5):341-344; doi:10.1093/europace/eul008
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© The European Society of Cardiology 2006. All rights reserved. For Permissions, please e-mail: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org

ATRIAL FIBRILLATION

Supraventricular ectopy and recurrence of atrial fibrillation after electrical cardioversion

James J.H. Chong, Saurabh Kumar, Liza Thomas and Stuart Thomas*

Department of Cardiology, Westmead Hospital, Cnr Hawkesbury and Darcy Rds, Westmead NSW 2145, Australia

Aims Paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF) is usually preceded by a premature atrial complex (PAC). We hypothesized that patients with a high frequency of atrial ectopic activity after restoration of sinus rhythm following direct current cardioversion would be more likely to experience recurrence of AF.

Methods and results Forty-four patients with documented persistent AF were studied. A 24 h Holter recording was performed from the day of external direct current cardioversion. Patients were reviewed at 1 week, 1 month, and 6 months. After 6 months, 59% of patients had experienced a recurrence of AF. Neither the frequency of PACs nor the frequency or duration of supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) episodes predicted AF recurrence (P=0.60, 0.30, and 0.42, respectively). There was a trend towards maximum rate of SVT predicting recurrence of AF (P=0.08).

Conclusion Frequency of supraventricular ectopy or the number and length of SVT runs in the 24 h after restoration of sinus rhythm are not strong predictors of recurrence of AF after electrical cardioversion. A larger study would be required to detect a small predictive effect.

Key Words: Atrial fibrillation, Supraventricular ectopy, Cardioversion

* Corresponding author. Tel: +61 2 9845 6795; fax: +61 2 9845 8323. E-mail address: stuartpt{at}yahoo.com


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