EDITORIALS
Getting the BEST out of DCCV
South West Cardiothoracic Centre, Derriford Hospital, Plymouth, UK
Correspondence to:
Dr G Haywood, South West Cardiothoracic Centre, Derriford Hospital, Plymouth PL18 9RY, UK; guy.haywood@phnt.swest.nhs.uk
| The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below. |
Direct current cardioversion (DCCV) as a treatment for persistent atrial fibrillation (AF) was first introduced in the 1960s.1 It has become a standard medical procedure performed in almost all hospitals with an acute medical unit in the UK. Much has changed in the management of AF in recent years and with the explosion of interest in AF ablation and the introduction of the NICE guidelines on AF management last year (http://guidance.nice.org.uk/CG36 (accessed 16 April 2008)) now is an appropriate time to ask if we are using the technique to best effect.
Several series following the results from unselected patients undergoing DCCV for AF have shown that sinus rhythm (SR) is achieved at the time of the procedure in about 85% of patients, but that at the end of 1 year, only 30–40% of these will still be in SR, the remainder having reverted to AF; yet, in those patients
CiteULike 
Complore 
Connotea 
Del.icio.us 
Digg 
Reddit 
Technorati What's this?
Relevant Article
- Biphasic energy selection for transthoracic cardioversion of atrial fibrillation. The BEST AF Trial
- B M Glover, S J Walsh, C J McCann, M J Moore, G Manoharan, G W N Dalzell, A McAllister, B McClements, D J McEneaney, T G Trouton, T P Mathew, and A A J Adgey
Heart 2008 94: 884-887.[Abstract] [Full Text] [PDF]
- Full Text
- Full Text (PDF)
- Submit a response
- Alert me when this article is cited
- Alert me when eLetters are posted
- Alert me if a correction is posted
- Citation Map
Services
- Email this link to a friend
- Similar articles in this journal
- Similar articles in PubMed
- Add article to my folders
- Download to citation manager
- Request Permissions
Citing Articles
Google Scholar
PubMed
Topic Collections
Bookmark with
Register for free content
The full back archive is now available for all BMJ Journals. Institutional subscribers may access the entire archive as part of their subscription. Personal subscribers will also have access to all content when logged in. Non-subscribers who register have free access to all articles published before 2006 right back to volume 1 issue 1. Register here to access the free archive of all BMJ Journals.
Don't forget to sign up for content alerts so you keep up to date with all the articles as they are published.
