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Abstract

Objective: To observe the practice of guideline recommend, pharmacologicalmanagement of patients with Atrial fibrillation (AF), at tertiary care cardiac center.Methodology: It was a descriptive cross-sectional study of six months durationconducted in National Institute of Cardiovascular Diseases Karachi (NICVD) fromApril to October 2007.Two hundred indoor patients with AF were evaluated. Datawas recorded and analyzed by SPSS version 16.Results: Majority of the patients with AF (76%), were <65 years of age. 46.5 % ofpatients had valvular heart disease. Rate controlling drugs were prescribed in180 (90%) patients. Total of 88 (44%) patients received beta blocker, 83 (41.5%)patients received digoxin. In 19% of the patients with high risk forthromboemoblism, neither Aspirin nor Warfarin was prescribed. In 14 % of lowrisk patients, both Aspirin and Warfarin were advised.Conclusion: In contrast to western studies majority of our patients with AF wereyounger and almost half of them had valvular heart disease. Reasonable numberof our patients with AF received guideline recommended pharmacological ratecontrolling therapy. Preventive pharmacological strategy for thromboembolicevents was highly un-acceptable.