Digoxin atrial fibrillation mechanism

“Based on our study, digoxin should be avoided in patients with AFib , particularly if symptoms can be alleviated with other treatments,” Lopes said. “We showed that starting digoxin was associated with increased risk of death and sudden death, regardless of the presence of heart failure.

The cardiac manifestations are the most concerning and can be fatal. Digoxin toxicity can induce literally every arrhythmia except for rapidly conducted atrial arrhythmias (atrial fibrillation and atrial flutter) .

Digoxin is a type of drug called a cardiac glycoside. Their function is to slow your heart rate down and improve the filling of your ventricles (two of the chambers of the heart) with blood . For people with atrial fibrillation, where the heart beats irregularly, a different volume of blood is pumped out each time.