Table 2.
Efficacy outcomes in patients undergoing rhythm or rate control
| Outcome | Rhythm control | Rate control | Absolute rate difference per 100 person years* (95% CI) |
Weighted hazard ratio (95% CI) | P value | |||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| No of events | Person years | Event rate* | No of events | Person years | Event rate* | |||||
| Early treatment of atrial fibrillation (≤1 year since the first diagnosis; rhythm control n=9246, rate control n=7077): | ||||||||||
| Primary composite outcome | 1187 | 19 461 | 7.42 | 1366 | 14 354 | 9.25 | −1.82 (−2.91 to −0.73) | 0.81 (0.71 to 0.93) | 0.002 | |
| Components of primary outcome | ||||||||||
| Cardiovascular death | 327 | 20 742 | 2.12 | 404 | 15 905 | 2.30 | −0.18 (−0.72 to 0.36) | 0.93 (0.73 to 1.19) | 0.56 | |
| Ischaemic stroke | 469 | 20 165 | 2.70 | 543 | 15 234 | 3.69 | −1.00 (−1.65 to −0.34) | 0.74 (0.60 to 0.91) | 0.004 | |
| Admission to hospital for heart failure | 541 | 20 030 | 3.33 | 689 | 14 976 | 4.27 | −0.94 (−1.66 to −0.22) | 0.79 (0.65 to 0.96) | 0.02 | |
| Acute myocardial infarction | 52 | 20 685 | 0.23 | 51 | 15 841 | 0.39 | −0.16 (−0.36 to 0.04) | 0.59 (0.30 to 1.16) | 0.13 | |
| Nights spent in hospital/year† | 26.1 (66.2) | 30.4 (72.7) | −4.2 (−6.4 to −2.1) | <0.001 | ||||||
| Late treatment of atrial fibrillation (>1 year since the first diagnosis; rhythm control n=4407, rate control n=1905): | ||||||||||
| Primary composite outcome | 691 | 9602 | 8.67 | 373 | 3926 | 8.99 | −0.32 (−2.19 to 1.54) | 0.97 (0.78 to 1.20) | 0.76 | |
| Components of primary outcome | ||||||||||
| Cardiovascular death | 196 | 10 407 | 2.46 | 128 | 4348 | 2.77 | −0.31 (−1.28 to 0.66) | 0.89 (0.61 to 1.29) | 0.53 | |
| Ischaemic stroke | 246 | 10 063 | 3.13 | 161 | 4144 | 3.54 | −0.41 (−1.53 to 0.71) | 0.89 (0.63 to 1.24) | 0.49 | |
| Admission to hospital for heart failure | 380 | 9926 | 4.24 | 167 | 4122 | 3.89 | 0.36 (−0.88 to 1.60) | 1.10 (0.91 to 1.50) | 0.53 | |
| Acute myocardial infarction | 26 | 10 382 | 0.23 | 13 | 4332 | 0.28 | −0.06 (−0.36 to 0.25) | 0.81 (0.25 to 2.66) | 0.73 | |
| Nights spent in hospital/year† | 29.3 (70.9) | 30.3 (72.4) | −1.0 (−4.9 to 2.8) | 0.60 | ||||||
*
Weighted incidence rate (per 100 person years) comparing rhythm and rate controlled patients after overlap weighting was applied.
†
Results are reported as mean (standard deviation) and the difference between the treatment groups was estimated using a two sample weighted t test.