Cardiologists Spot Best Treatment for a Deadly Duo

When added to heart failure, the irregular heartbeat called atrial fibrillation can form a deadly combination.

Now, an international study shows that a less onerous strategy called "rate control" may be the best first option for keeping patients healthy under these circumstances.

"Our results show that one strategy was not superior to the other in terms of major endpoints such as cardiovascular mortality," explained the study's lead author, Dr. Denis Roy, chair of medicine at the University of Montreal, Canada. That indicates that rate control should be the primary approach, Roy said.

"If patients on rate control do not feel well, then the physician can switch to the other approach," he said.

The findings are published in the June 19 issue of the New England Journal of Medicine .

An estimated 4.8 million Americans have heart failure, which involves a progressive loss of the heart's ability to pump blood. About ...