Cross-sectional study of treatment strategies on atrial fibrillation.

BACKGROUND: Despite the high prevalence and clinical importance of atrial fibrillation (AF), there is no Brazilian study describing the clinical profile of patients with AF and the most used treatment strategy (rhythm control vs. rate control). OBJECTIVE: Assess the most common treatment on AF in an outpatient specialized clinic for management of AF. In addition, the clinical profile of the population studied was provided. METHODS: Cross-sectional study assessing the most used strategy for atrial fibrillation control in 167 patients. The clinical profile was also described. A standardized form was used for data collection and statistical analysis was performed by SPSS 13.0 software. RESULTS: In This high risk population for thromboembolic events (61% had CHADS(2) ≥ 2), 54% of patients had paroxysmal or persistent AF, 96.6% were on vitamin K antagonists or acetylsalicylic acid, and 76.6% on beta-blocker (rate control 81,2% x rhythm control 58,8%; p < 0.05). Heart rate control was the most used strategy (79.5% x 20.5%; p < 0.001). A statistical tendency towards more patients with ventricular dysfunction (15.2% x 2.9%; p = 0.06), CHADS(2) ≥ 2 (60.5% x 39.5%; p = 0.07) and heart valve diseases (25.8% x 11.8%; p = 0.08) was observed in the heart rate control group. CONCLUSION: In this high risk population for thromboembolic events, the rate control strategy was the most used.