Atrial fibrillation in hypertrophie cardiomyopathy: A longitudinal study

The clinical outcome of 52 consecutive patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy who developed paroxysmal ( During follow-up study, 25 of the 52 patients were treated with conventional therapy alone and 7 with amiodarone alone. Amiodarone therapy was associated with maintenance of sinus rhythm, fewer alterations in drug therapy, fewer embolic episodes and fewer attempted direct current cardioversions (during a shorter follow-up period). The remaining 20 patients initially received conventional therapy but were not well controlled and were switched to amiodarone (median 200 mg/day), after which there were fewer alterations in drug therapy and fewer direct current cardioversions during a similar follow-up period. There were 19 disease-related deaths. Estimated probability of surviving 5,10,15 and 20 years after the diagnosis of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy was 0.86, 0.71, 0.65 and 0.50 and was similar in a concurrent group of 122 patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy who remained in sinus rhythm (0.92, 0.82, 0.71 and 0.41), respectively.