Cynthia Tracy, MD, Co-Authors Updated National Guideline for Management of Atrial Fibrillation

Cynthia Tracy, MD, director of electrophysiology and professor of medicine at the George Washington University (GW) School of Medicine and Health Sciences, recently co-authored the 2019 Focused Update of the Guideline for the Management of Patients with Atrial Fibrillation, published by the American College of Cardiology/American Heart Association Task Force.

The clinical practice guideline provides evidence-based guidance to physicians and other health care providers practicing cardiovascular medicine. The guideline also can provide a foundation for other applications, such as performance measures, appropriate use criteria, quality improvement, and clinical decision support tools.

Revisions were made to the sections on anticoagulation, catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation, and management of atrial fibrillation complicating acute coronary syndrome. In addition, sections on device detection of atrial fibrillation and weight loss were introduced.

“The purpose of the update is to revise or add areas where new evidence has emerged,” said Tracy, who is an active member of the American College of Cardiology, the American Heart Association, and the Heart Rhythm Society. She also helped develop the cardiac electrophysiology laboratory at GW Hospital and leads the clinical cardiac electrophysiology training program.

Tracy also co-authored the 2014 Guideline for the Management of Patients with Atrial Fibrillation.

The 2019 guideline was published in the Journal of the American College of Cardiology and in Circulation, the journal of the American Heart Association: www.ahajournals.org/doi/10.1161/CIR.0000000000000665