Vernakalant Versus Ibutilide In Recent-Onset Atrial Fibrillation
Status:
Completed
Trial end date:
2015-05-01
Target enrollment:
Participant gender:
Summary
Atrial fibrillation is the most common cardiac arrhythmia and is expected to affect about 30
million North Americans and Europeans by 2050. Atrial fibrillation is associated with
increased cardiovascular morbidity and mortality, with stroke being an especially important
and potentially devastating complication. Many studies have investigated the efficacy of
different drugs in converting atrial fibrillation to sinus rhythm. There are numerous
randomized controlled trials that have tested the efficacy of agents against placebo and some
trials that directly compared the efficacy of two or more different drugs. The class III
antiarrhythmic drug Ibutilde is approved for the acute termination of atrial fibrillation and
atrial flutter of recent onset and has been shown to be superior to sotalol and equivalent to
flecainide in this indication. Recently, the relatively atrial selective antiarrhythmic agent
vernakalant has been approved by the European Commission for the rapid conversion of recent
onset AF to sinus rhythm in adults. The investigators hypothesize that the period of time
needed for cardioversion to sinus rhythm and the efficacy of cardioversion within 90 minutes
is different between vernakalant and ibutilide in patients with recent-onset atrial
fibrillation.