Objective: Our goal was to determine what drugs are most efficacious for controlling the ventricular rate in patients with atrial fibrillation.
Search strategy: We conducted a systematic review of the literature published before May 1998, beginning with searches of The Cochrane Collaboration's CENTRAL database and MEDLINE.
Selection criteria: We included English-language articles describing randomized controlled trials of drugs used for heart rate control in adults with atrial fibrillation.
Data collection/analysis: Abstracts of trials were reviewed independently by 2 members of the study team. We reviewed English-language abstracts of non-English-language publications to assess qualitative consistency with our results.
Main results: Forty-five articles evaluating 17 drugs met our criteria for review. In the 5 trials of verapamil and 5 of diltiazem, heart rate was reduced significantly (P <.05), both at rest and with exercise, compared with placebo, with equivalent or improved exercise tolerance in 6 of 7 comparisons. In 7 of 12 comparisons of a beta-blocker with placebo, the beta-blocker was efficacious for control of resting heart rate, with evidence that the effect is drug specific, as nadolol and atenolol proved to be most efficacious. All 9 comparisons demonstrated good heart rate control with beta-blockers during exercise, although exercise tolerance was compromised in 3 of 9 comparisons. In 7 of 8 trials, digoxin administered alone slowed the resting heart rate more than placebo, but it did not significantly slow the rate during exercise in 4 studies. The trials evaluating other drugs yielded insufficient evidence to support their use, but those drugs may yet be promising.
Conclusions: The calcium-channel blockers verapamil or diltiazem, or select beta-blockers are efficacious for heart rate control at rest and during exercise for patients with atrial fibrillation without a clinically important decrease in exercise tolerance. Digoxin is useful when rate control during exercise is less a concern.