--- abstract: | Side effects of antiarrhythmic drug (AAD) therapy -- not inefficacy -- are responsible for the inability of rhythm control to maintain long-term sinus rhythm, according to an analysis from the Rate Control vs. Electrical Cardioversion (RACE) study.1 Presenting the data at the European Society of Cardiology 2003 Congress (Vienna, Austria), Eduard H. Hoekstra, MD, University Hospital (Groningen, The Netherlands) on behalf of the RACE investigators reported that long-term maintenance of sinus rhythm was significantly reduced by the side effects of sotalol and amiodarone and the discontinuation amiodarone, but not by clinical characteristics. They suggested that the high incidence of side effects from the drugs is responsible for the failure of rhythm control to show superiority over rate control for the treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF), as reported in several large randomized trials. The current analysis was designed to determine the actual number of AAD side effects, their clinical characteristics, and relation of the side-effects to the failure of long-term maintenance of sinus rhythm in the 266 patients with AF (/= 1 risk factor for stroke.2 altloc: - http://www.ipej.org/0304/ray2.htm chapter: ~ commentary: ~ commref: ~ confdates: ~ conference: ~ confloc: ~ contact_email: ~ creators_id: [] creators_name: - family: Basu Ray given: Indranill honourific: '' lineage: '' date: 2003-10 date_type: published datestamp: 2005-04-20 department: ~ dir: disk0/00/00/42/55 edit_lock_since: ~ edit_lock_until: ~ edit_lock_user: ~ editors_id: [] editors_name: - family: Singh given: Balbir honourific: '' lineage: '' - family: Lokhandwala given: Yash honourific: '' lineage: '' - family: Francis given: Johnson honourific: '' lineage: '' - family: Gupta given: Anup honourific: '' lineage: '' eprint_status: archive eprintid: 4255 fileinfo: /style/images/fileicons/text_html.png;/4255/1/ray2.htm full_text_status: public importid: ~ institution: ~ isbn: ~ ispublished: pub issn: ~ item_issues_comment: [] item_issues_count: 0 item_issues_description: [] item_issues_id: [] item_issues_reported_by: [] item_issues_resolved_by: [] item_issues_status: [] item_issues_timestamp: [] item_issues_type: [] keywords: Latest Updates In EP lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:55:58 latitude: ~ longitude: ~ metadata_visibility: show note: ~ number: 4 pagerange: 273 pubdom: TRUE publication: Indian Pacing and Electrophysiology Journal publisher: Indian Pacing and Electrophysiology Group refereed: TRUE referencetext: ~ relation_type: [] relation_uri: [] reportno: ~ rev_number: 8 series: ~ source: ~ status_changed: 2007-09-12 16:57:40 subjects: - ipej succeeds: ~ suggestions: ~ sword_depositor: ~ sword_slug: ~ thesistype: ~ title: "Latest Updates In EP \n" type: journalp userid: 4424 volume: 3