Management of Paroxystic Atrial Fibrillation in French Intensive Care Units

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a common arrhythmia in the ICU and is associated with significant morbidity. However, curative treatment remains unclearly established. In fact, there are no specific recommendations for new onset atrial fibrillation in ICU and only few studies have assessed this topic.

The PAF-ICU trial is an observational, prospective, multicenter, transversal trial. The main objective is to evaluate the management of paroxytic atrial fibrillation that occur in ICU.

The investigators want to document 2500 episodes of paroxystic atrial fibrillation in 50 ICU centers. In each center, the episodes are included consecutively until the required 50 episodes are obtained for each center.

A patient can present several episodes and each episode can be included in the study. A new episode is considered as such if it occurs more than one hour after the previous episode.

The follow-up period for each patient corresponds to the ICU stay.

Inclusion criteria

• Age > 18 years
• Patient hospitalized in ICU
• New onset atrial fibrillation

Exclusion criteria

• Age < 18 years
• Parturient or breast-feeding woman
• Persistent or permanent atrial fibrillation
• Patients after cardiovascular or thoracic surgery
• Patients with therapeutic limitations