Posted by steve giddings on September 20, 2002 at 08:07:07:
In Reply to: posted by Carl Plaskett on September 19, 2002 at 19:09:19:
Carl asked if I had any input, so, for what it's worth. I'm not aware that prednisone (which is a synthetic glucocorticoid hormone, that has functions similar to the stress hormone cortisol, produced by the adrenal glands and essential for survival) has any direct a fib provoking effects. Because one of its many functions is to suppress the immune response system, it might sometimes actually decrease af, particularly in the setting of pericarditis. The drugs that are more likely to do this are drugs that alter the activity of one or more components of the cell membrane, which is probably the reason the the macrolide class of antibiotics (like erthyromycin and zithromycin, "Zithromax") do this. Many anti biotics work by screwing up bacterial cell walls/membranes. While they are used because because they are selective for bacterial systems, those differences aren't absolute.