[Guidelines and clinical practice: anticoagulant therapy and cardioversion in atrial fibrillation].

UNLABELLED: The cardioversion of atrial fibrillation is linked to a substantial risk of systemic embolization. In an effort to reduce it, the American College of Chest Physicians (ACCP) periodically publishes guidelines for the use of anticoagulation in the conversion of atrial fibrillation. OBJECTIVE: Determination of the physician's compliance with the recommendations of the "Fourth ACCP Consensus Conference on Antithrombotic Therapy". METHODS: The charts of people admitted to a community hospital in 1998 with a diagnosis of atrial fibrillation (n = 202) were evaluated retrospectively. Consideration was given to the ACCP's recommendation to give anticoagulants 3 weeks before and 4 weeks after elective cardioversion to patients who had been in atrial fibrillation for more than 2 days. RESULTS: Ninety-one of the 202 patients admitted with atrial fibrillation reported the onset of arrhythmia more than 48 hours before. Thirty-four of them underwent elective cardioversion and 13 cases (33%) went without anticoagulation in the preceding 2 weeks. Of these 13 cases, 8 were patients aged over 75 (range 78-88, mean 84). After sinus rhythm had been restored in 30 people (spontaneously in 5 of them), the anticoagulant therapy was not administered during the 4 recommended weeks in 10 people (33%), all of them over 75 (range 77.94, mean 84). CONCLUSIONS: Anticoagulation for cardioversion of atrial fibrillation is underused, especially among elderly patients. In order not to let age itself be an obstacle to the correct treatment of patients with high embolic risk, our efforts must be improved in order to identify the correct therapeutic choice in each particular case. Initiatives aimed at identifying and removing any impediment to the application of guidelines may contribute to stimulating physicians in the process of evaluating the quality of hospital treatment.