Efficacy And Safety Of Omega-3Fatty Acids For The Prevention Of Atrial Fibrillation:a Meta-analysis

Aims:We performed a meta-analysis to assess the efficacy and safety of omega-3fatty acids (PUFA) for the primary and secondary prevention of atrial fibrillation (AF).Methods:PubMed, EMBASE, Web of Science, Cochrane Library and the Chinese Biomedical Literature Database were searched for randomized controlled trials (published up to January2012) that compared PUFA with control. Confidence in the estimates of the obtained effects (quality of evidence) and strength of recommendation were assessed by using the Grading of Recommendations Assessment, Development, and Evaluation approach (GRADE). Odds ratios (ORs) with corresponding95%confidence interval (CI) were calculated with a random-effects model or fixed-effects model. All statistical analyses were performed with RevMan5.1(The Cochrane Collaboration, Oxford, United Kingdom) and Stata12.0(Stata Corp, College Station, TX, USA).Results:For primary prevention:6studies with928patients were designed to evaluate the effects of PUFA on the incidence of postoperative AF. The use of PUFA significantly reduced the incidence of postoperative AF (OR,0.66;95%CI,0.49to0.88; P=0.004); there was no difference in complications or adverse events (OR,1.24;95%CI,0.58to2.62; P=0.58). For secondary prevention, we analyzed5studies involving1256patients designed to evaluate the effects of PUFA therapy on AF. The use of PUFA did not significantly reduce the recurrence of AF (OR,0.74;95%CI,0.39to1.42; P=0.37); no difference was observed in complications or adverse events (OR,1.10;95%CI,0.78to1.57; P=0.58).Conclusions:The meta-analysis shows that PUFA therapy is significantly associated with a decreased odds of incidence of AF after open heart surgery, but there is no significant difference in recurrence of AF between PUFA and control groups. PUFA is well-tolerated, with no difference in complications or adverse events between PUFA and control groups.