ArticleEuropace : European pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac electrophysiology : journal of the working groups on cardiac pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac cellular electrophysiology of the European Society of Cardiology2023
Impact of anti-arrhythmic drugs and catheter ablation on the survival of patients with atrial fibrillation: a population study based on 199 433 new-onset atrial fibrillation patients in the UK.
Article in Europace : European pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac electrophysiology : journal of the working groups on cardiac pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac cellular electrophysiology of the European Society of Cardiology, 2023. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 10 papers.
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Who cites it
10 citing papers in PubMed, 18 citations in OpenAlex.
- The clinical pathophysiology of atrial fibrillation: outstanding questions from bedside to bench and back.Physiological reviews · 2026Review
- Flecainide in Structural Heart Disease: Reconsidering Its Role in Contemporary Arrhythmia Management.Life (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Review
- Practical compendium of antiarrhythmic drugs: a clinical consensus statement of the European Heart Rhythm Association of the European Society of Cardiology.Europace : European pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac electrophysiology : journal of the working groups on cardiac pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac cellular electrophysiology of the European Society of Cardiology · 2025Review
- Evolution in electrophysiology 100 years after Einthoven: translational and computational innovations in rhythm control of atrial fibrillation.Europace : European pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac electrophysiology : journal of the working groups on cardiac pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac cellular electrophysiology of the European Society of Cardiology · 2024Review
- [Update atrial fibrillation in older adults].Zeitschrift fur Gerontologie und Geriatrie · 2024Review
- Effects of antiarrhythmic drug responsiveness and diagnosis-to-ablation time on outcomes after catheter ablation for persistent atrial fibrillation.Journal of arrhythmia · 2024Article
- Antiarrhythmic drugs in the era of atrial fibrillation ablation.Europace : European pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac electrophysiology : journal of the working groups on cardiac pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac cellular electrophysiology of the European Society of Cardiology · 2024Article
- [Type 2 amiodarone-induced thyrotoxicosis: prevalence, time and predictors of development].Problemy endokrinologii · 2023Article
- Electronic health record-wide association study for atrial fibrillation in a British cohort.Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine · 2023Article
- Managing arrhythmia in cardiac resynchronisation therapy.Frontiers in cardiovascular medicine · 2023Review
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
5 authors at 3 institutions in 2 countries.
Funding
Abstract
aimsUtilizing real-world UK data, we aimed to understand: (i) whether anti-arrhythmic drugs and catheter ablation are effective in improving the survival of atrial fibrillation (AF) patients and (ii) which rhythm control option produces better results for the whole AF population and for specific groups of patients, stratified by age, sex, and history of heart failure. METHODS AND
resultsWe identified 199 433 individuals (mean age at diagnosis 75.7 ± 12.7 years; 50.2% women) with new-onset AF diagnosis in nationwide electronic health records linking primary care consultation with hospital data and death registry data from 1998 to 2016. We investigated the survival and causes of death of new-onset AF patients receiving vs. not-receiving rhythm control therapies. During a median follow-up of 2.7 (0.7-6.0) years, we observed a significantly lower mortality in patients receiving rhythm control [multivariate-adjusted hazard ratio (HR) = 0.86, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.84-0.88]. Pulmonary vein isolation was associated with a two-third significant mortality reduction compared with no rhythm control (HR = 0.36, 95% CI 0.28-0.48), flecainide with 50% reduction (HR = 0.52, 95% CI 0.48-0.57), and propafenone and sotalol with reduction by a third (HR = 0.63, 95% CI 0.50-0.81, 0.71, 95% CI 0.68-0.74, respectively). Amiodarone showed no survival benefit in individuals <70 years (HR = 0.99, 95% CI 0.97-1.02). Otherwise, the effect of rhythm control on survival did not differ by age, sex, nor history of heart failure.
conclusionAmong individuals with new-onset AF, favourable survival was observed for patients receiving rhythm control treatment. Among different rhythm control strategies, pulmonary vein isolation showed the most pronounced survival benefit.
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