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Atrial Fibrillation (Management of)

ESC Clinical Practice Guidelines

Topics:

Atrial Fibrillation

Summary

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained cardiac arrhythmia, occurring in 1–2% of the general population.

Current versions available to download

Publication dateVersionsReferencesSize
2010Full Textdoi:10.1093/eurheartj/ehq2783 MB
 Pocket guidelinesTable of Contents
 PdaDownload the PDA version

Current translated versions available to download:

Authors

A. John Camm (Chairperson), Paulus Kirchhof, Gregory Y. H. Lip, Ulrich Schotten, Irene Savelieva, Sabine Ernst, Isabelle C. Van Gelder, Nawwar Al-Attar, Gerhard Hindricks, Bernard Prendergast, Hein Heidbuchel, Ottavio Alfieri, Annalisa Angelini, Dan Atar, Paolo Colonna, Raffaele De Caterina, Johan De Sutter, Andreas Goette, Bulent Gorenek, Magnus Heldal, Stefan Hohnloser, Philippe Kolh, Jean-Yves Le Heuzey, Piotr Ponikowski, Frans H. Rutten

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Table of contents: Full Text (ESC Clinical Practice Guidelines)

Abbreviations and acronyms

Preamble

Introduction

  • Epidemiology
  • Mechanisms of atrial fibrillation

Detection, 'natural' history and acute management

  • Definition
  • Detection
  • "natual" time course
  • Electrocardiogram techniques to diagnose and monitor atrial fibrillation
  • Types of atrial fibrillation
  • Initial management
  • Clinical follow up

Management

Antithrombotic management

  • Risk stratification for stroke and thrombo-embolism
  • Antithrombotic therapy
  • Anticoagulation therapy with vitamin K antagonist vs control
  • Antiplatelet therapy vs control
  • Anticoagulation therapy with vitamin k antagonist vs antiplatelet therapy
  • Other antithrombotic drug regimens
  • Investigational agents
  • Current recommendations for antithrombotic therapy
  • Risk of bleding
  • Optimal ternational normalized ratio
  • Special situations
  • paroxymal atrial fibrilllation
  • Perioperative anticoagulation
  • Stable vascular disease
  • ACS and/ or PCI
  • Elective PCI
  • Non-St elevation myocardial infraction
  • Acue ST segement elevation myocardial infarction with primary percutaneous intervention
  • Acute stroke
  • Atrial flutter
  • Cardioversion
  • Tansoesophageal echocariogram-guided cardioversion
  • Non-pharmacological methods to prevent stroke

Rate and rhythm management

  • Acute rate and rhythm management
  • Acute rate control
  • Pharmacological conversion
  • Direct current cardioversion
  • Long term managemet
  • Rate and rhythm control
  • Parmacological rate control
  • Atrioventricular node abaltation and modification
  • Long term rhythm control
  • Antiarrhythmic drugs to maintain sinus rhythm
  • Left atrial ablation
  • Surgical ablation

Upstream therapy:

  • Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and angiotensin receptor blockers
  • Aldosterone antagosnists
  • Statins
  • Polyunsaturated fatty acids

Specific population

  • Heart failure
  • Athletes
  • valvular heart disease
  • Acute coronoray syndromes
  • Diabetes mellitus
  • The elderly
  • Pregnancy
  • Post-operative atrial fibrillation
  • Hyperthyroidism
  • Wolf-Parkinson-White syndrome
  •  Hypertrophic cardiomyopathy
  • Pulmonary disease

Previous versions

2006: Corrigendum to ACC/AHA/ESC 2006 Guidelines for the Management of Patients with Atrial Fibrillation:Full TextExecutive Summary 

2001:Euro Heart Journal 2001; 22, 1852–1923: Atrial Fibrillation (Management of):
 Full text | Executive Summary

A complete list of ESC Clinical Practice Guidelines (current and previous versions) endorsed by ESC National Society Members is available here