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Updated: Sep 28, 2026

Catheter Ablation in Combination With Left Atrial Appendage Closure for Atrial Fibrillation
Published on: February 26, 2013
Medication-specific risk of atrial fibrillation in patients with coronary artery disease
Taehyun Kim1, Gayeon Ryu2,3, Ye Eun Choi2,3
1Department of Medicine, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Seoul, 05505 Republic of Korea.
Purpose:
Cardiovascular medications used in coronary artery disease (CAD) can potentially modulate the risk of incident atrial fibrillation (AF). However, comprehensive data regarding medication-specific AF risk in the CAD population remain limited. This study aimed to identify prevalent medications prescribed to patients with CAD and evaluate their independent associations with AF risk. In this retrospective cohort study of 157,750 patients with CAD and related comorbidities, CAD-predominant medications were identified based on a frequency analysis of prescriptions in the overall cohort. Among 99,370 patients who received at least one such medication, associations with incident AF were evaluated using extended Cox proportional hazards models with time-varying covariates. Overall, 30 CAD-predominant medications were identified across nine pharmacological classes. In multivariable Cox proportional hazards models, six medications were significantly associated with AF risk, of which one was associated with a lower risk and five with a higher risk. Ezetimibe/rosuvastatin was associated with reduced AF risk, whereas diltiazem HCl, torasemide, heparin sodium, bisoprolol fumarate, and norepinephrine were associated with increased risk. Torasemide showed the strongest positive association. AF risk demonstrated heterogeneity across different CAD medications. Antilipidemic agents were associated with a lower AF risk, whereas certain diuretics, antianginal agents, antihypertensive, and vasoactive agents were associated with a higher risk. These results may have implications for individualized pharmacotherapy and AF prevention in patients with CAD.
Supplementary Information:
The online version contains supplementary material available at https://doi.org/10.1007/s13534-026-00589-6.
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