Is Coreg Better Than Lopressor For Atrial Fibrillation?

Posted on Mon, 9 Jan 2017

Question: hello.both my wife and IhVe a fibs. Ihave had it fir years but she justgot it. Mine is controled by Lopressor but she is taking Coreg 25 mg/ day with mixed results. what do you think the disparity is due to? email is YYYY@YYYY . thx.

Answered by Dr. Dr. Meriton Siqeca (12 minutes later)

Brief Answer:
Different beta-blockers

Detailed Answer:
Greetings and welcome to HCM. Thank you for your question. I understand your concern.

Beta-blockers are an important class of medication used in rate control in atrial fibrilation, also in preventin episodes of atrial fibrilation paroxysms to happen. However, there is a difference even between members of this class of drugs. For example, propranolol, atenolol and metoprolol are excellent choices to fulfill the above mentioned aim during atrial fibrilation, since they act on the heart rate, whereas carvedilol, bisoprolol and nebivolol have weaker effect on the heart rate. Since you are on metoprolol (Lopressor) and she is on carvedilol (Coreg), my opinion is that this is the cause of the disparity. Therefore, I would recommend for her to be switched from carvedilol to metoprolol.

I hope my answer is helpful. I am happy to help, if you have follow-up questions.

Kind regards,
Dr. Meriton

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Above answer was peer-reviewed by : Dr. Prasad