Cardiology Research and Practice

Review Article

Digoxin Use to Control Ventricular Rate in Patients with Atrial Fibrillation and Heart Failure Is Not Associated with Increased Mortality

Table 1

Study characteristics evaluating the association of digoxin and the risk of mortality in patients with atrial fibrillation.


First author	Study design	Digoxin group	Control	Age (yrs)	Male (%)	CHF (%)	Follow-up (yrs)	Primary endpoints	Analysis method	Study quality

Chao (2014) [15]	Prospective	829	3,952	70.8 ± 12.5	52.1	23.8	4.3	All-cause mortality	CRM, NPM	Good
Fauchier (2009) [14]	Prospective	402	867	76 ± 13	56.2	100.0	2.4	All-cause mortality	CPHM, NPM	Good
Shah (2014) [16]	Retrospective	23,200	77,399	79.4 ± 7.2	42.8	NA	4.2	All-cause mortality	CPHM, PM	Good
Shah (2014) [16]		15,181	24,331	80.1 ± 7.4	50.0	100.0	3.1	All-cause mortality	CPHM, PM	Good
Friberg (2010) [22]	Prospective	802	2,022	78	45.7	63.7	4.6	All-cause mortality	CRM, PM	Good
Whitbeck (2013) [18]	Retrospective	2,153	1,905	NA	NA	12.0	3.5	All-cause mortality	CPHM, PM	Good
Gjesdal (2008) [19]	Retrospective	3,911	3,418	71 ± 9	66.9	45.3	0.8	All-cause mortality	CPHM, NPM	Good
Turakhia (2014) [20]	Prospective	28,679	93,786	71.7 ± 10.2	98.5	21.3	2.8	All-cause mortality	CPHM, PM	Good
Mulder (2014) [24]	Retrospective	284	324	68 ± 8	59.9	8.5	3	All-cause mortality	CPHM, NPM	Good
Rodríguez-Mañero (2014) [23]	Retrospective	212	565	76.9 ± 8.4	46.2	19.8	2.9	All-cause mortality, survival free of admission	CPHM, NPM	Good
Freeman (2014) [13]	Retrospective	4,858	22,430	71.9 ± 11.9	50.2	0.0	1.2	All-cause mortality	CPHM, PM	Good
Pastori (2015) [21]	Prospective	171	644	74.4 ± 7.2	53.2	25.7	2.7	All-cause mortality	CPHM, PM	Good
Allen (2015) [17]	Prospective	2948	6671	76	55.7	21.9	1.8	All-cause mortality	CFM, PM	Good

CHF: congestive heart failure; NA: not available; CRM: Cox regression model; CPHM: Cox proportional hazards model; PM: propensity matching; NPM: not propensity matched; CFM: Cox frailty model.
Shah: study characteristics who only had atrial fibrillation.
Shah: study characteristics in patients who had both atrial fibrillation and congestive heart failure.