UC Irvine Emergency Medicine Research Changes International Afib Guidelines

Dr. Shahram Lotifpour and Dr. Mark Langdorf, along with former residents Dr. Chris Wall and then current resident Dr. Sharis Simonian, published a paper in 2010 entitled, "Challenging the superiority of amiodarone for rate control in Wolff-Parkinson-White and atrial fibrillation" in Internal and Emergency Medicine. The paper called into question the use of this drug as dangerous, precipitating ventricular fibrillation through accelerating conduction through the accessory pathway. This was the third published case of this adverse, near fatal outcome, with little or no evidence for the drug's effectiveness.

The 2014 American Heart Association Guidelines were subsequently revised and published, changing the former recommendation to use the drug to "harmful"; based on this paper.

Research from UC Irvine changed the recommended treatment of this uncommon but important cardiac arrhythmia.

Link to Research Paper