Europace : European pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac electrophysiology : journal of the working groups on cardiac pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac cellular electrophysiology of the European Society of Cardiology
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Randomized Controlled Trial
n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids for the prevention of arrhythmia recurrence after electrical cardioversion of chronic persistent atrial fibrillation: a randomized, double-blind, multicentre study.
Persistent atrial fibrillation (AF) often recurs after direct current electrical cardioversion (ECV). As several experimental and clinical studies suggest that n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFAs) may have antiarrhythmic properties even at the atrial level, we aimed to evaluate whether oral supplementation with PUFAs, in addition to conventional antiarrhythmic drugs, could reduce the recurrence rate of the arrhythmia after ECV of persistent AF. ⋯ Our results do not support the hypothesis that, in patients undergoing ECV of chronic persistent AF, supplementation with PUFAs in addition to the usual antiarrhythmic treatment reduces recurrent AF.