ATHENA Clinical Results with Dronedarone (Multaq(R)) Highlighted at the World Cardiolog...( BUENOS AIRES Argentina May 22 /- ...),Health

BUENOS AIRES, Argentina, May 22 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ -- On May 21, 2008 at the World Congress of Cardiology (WCC), the press conference entitled, "New Perspectives in Atrial Fibrillation Management" chaired by John Camm, Professor of Clinical Cardiology, St George's University of London, highlighted the importance of the newly announced ATHENA clinical trial results, on the potential management of atrial fibrillation, a common form of cardiac arrhythmia.

"ATHENA is truly a landmark trial, that marks a paradigm change for the management of atrial fibrillation," said Prof Christopher Cannon, a Senior Investigator in the TIMI Study Group at Brigham and Women's Hospital, Harvard Medical School, who was not involved in the study. "Atrial fibrillation is a very common disease, and our prior treatment options have been focused only on symptom relief and a hope to not do harm, which has been the problem with prior antiarrhythmic drugs. Now, with a highly significant reduction in cardiovascular hospitalization or death, as well as a 45% reduction in arrhythmic death or 30% cardiovascular death, dronedarone may become an appropriate treatment option for atrial fibrillation".

The ATHENA study results were presented by Prof Stefan Hohnloser last week (15th May 08) at the Heart Rhythm Society's 29th Annual Scientific Sessions in San Francisco, USA. The study results show that dronedarone significantly decreased the risk of cardiovascular hospitalizations or death from any cause by 24% (p=0.00000002), meeting the study's primary endpoint. Results of the primary endpoint were consistent across all the pre-specified clinically relevant subgroups.

The most frequently reported adverse events of Multaq(R) vs. placebo in the ATHENA trial were gastro-intestinal effects (26% vs. 22%), skin disorders (10% vs. 8%, mainly rash) and increased blood creatinine (4.7% vs. 1%). The mechanism of blood creatinine increase (inhibition of creatinine secretion at the ren
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