Effect of dofetilide on survival in patients with supraventricular arrhythmias.

OBJECTIVES

This study compared survival between patients taking dofetilide and patients taking placebo in a pooled analysis of randomized clinical trials of patients with supraventricular arrhythmias.

BACKGROUND

Clinical trials of antiarrhythmic drugs used to treat supraventricular arrhythmias rarely include enough patients to assess whether the drug being tested has an effect on survival. Pooling data from many trials provides useful information on safety.

METHODS

Data from randomized clinical trials of antiarrhythmic drug therapy of supraventricular arrhythmias were pooled to assess the effect on survival of dofetilide (n = 1346) compared with placebo (n = 677) in this patient population.

RESULTS

The unadjusted hazard ratio for risk of death (dofetilide/placebo) was 1.4 with 95% confidence interval 0.4-5.1. After adjusting for effects of arrhythmia diagnosis, age, sex, and structural heart disease, the hazard ratio was 1.1 (confidence interval 0.3-4.3).

CONCLUSIONS

The pooled survival analysis provided reassurance regarding the safety of dofetilide in patients with supraventricular arrhythmias.