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Perioperative Supraventricular Tachyarrhythmia
- Thomas H. Lee, MD; and
- Carisi A. Polanczyk, MD
- Partners Community HealthCare, Inc.; Boston, MA 02199 (Lee) Brigham and Women's Hospital; Boston, MA 02115 (Polanczyk)
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IN RESPONSE:
We agree with Dr. Amar that age is a continuous risk factor; we chose to express it as a dichotomous factor to allow easier appreciation of its importance. The mean (±SD) ages of patients with and without supraventricular arrhythmia in our cohort were 68 ± 9.6 and 66 ± 9.6 years, respectively (P < 0.01). We also agree that the finding of a lower rate of arrhythmia among patients having thoracic surgery who were using digoxin before surgery should be interpreted with caution, as indicated in our article. However, the magnitude in the reduction in risk for supraventricular arrhythmia among this subset of patients (odds ratio, 0.2) was sufficiently large that we wanted to call attention to it so that it could be evaluated in future research.
Thomas H. Lee, MD
Partners Community HealthCare, Inc.; Boston, MA 02199
- Copyright ©2004 by the American College of Physicians
