Less Treatment OK for Atrial Fibrillation

Less strict control of the heart rate is fine for people with a common heart rhythm problem, a new study finds. Researchers looked at 2 ways of treating people with atrial fibrillation. With this condition, the heart’s upper chambers don’t beat normally. Instead, they quiver. Doctors treat this problem with medicines. They try to lower the heart rate to less than 80 beats per minute at rest or 110 beats with exercise. For the study, researchers randomly divided 614 people into 2 groups. One group was treated according to current guidelines. The other group had a more lenient goal — less than 110 beats per minute at all times. Researchers kept track of how many people had strokes, blood clots, hospital trips for heart failure, and other heart-related problems. In 3 years, about 13% of the group with the less strict target had such problems.