Acute Rate Control in Atrial Fibrillation With Left Ventricular Dysfunction

Left ventricular diastolic dysfunction in atrial fibrillation

Left atrial dysfunction in patients with atrial fibrillation after successful rhythm control for > 3 months.

BACKGROUND Large-scale clinical trials have demonstrated that patients with atrial fibrillation (AF), when treated with a rhythm-control strategy, are still at risk for embolic events. We hypothesized that left atrial (LA) dysfunction persisted even after successful maintenance of sinus rhythm for > 3 months. METHODS A total of 93 patients with AF and satisfactory rhythm control for > 3 month...

Left ventricular ejection time in atrial fibrillation.

Left ventricular ejection time (LVET; indirect carotid pulse) was studied in 48 patients with atrial fibrillation. In comparison with normal individuals in normal sinus rhythm, ejection times for similar cycle lengths were usually short in patients with atrial fibrillation. Patients without mitral valve disease usually show increasing ejection times following increasing cycle lengths until a ce...

Rate control in atrial fibrillation.

Untreated atrial fibrillation is usually associated with a rapid, irregular ventricular response and is often accompanied by symptoms including palpitations, fatigue, dyspnea, and dizziness. It is widely accepted that slowing the ventricular response, both at rest and during activity, with the use of drugs that prolong the refractory period of the atrioventricular (AV) node (so-called rate-cont...

Ventricular rate patterns in atrial fibrillation.

ATRIAL fibrillation has long been the intriguing subject of much speculation and investigation. In general, scientific inquiry has been addressed to two major problem areas: First, what abnormal conditions affecting the basic electrophysiologic state of the atria are responsible for the inception and perpetuation of fibrillation? Second, what factors govern the response of the atrioven-tricular...