Results

Patients withdrawn from digoxin therapy had:

• reduced maximal exercise capacity (median change in exercise time -96 s) compared with that of patients who continued to receive digoxin (change in exercise time +4.5 s) (p = 0.003)
• an increased incidence of treatment failures: 39% in the digoxin withdrawal group vs. 19% in the digoxin maintenance group, p=0.039)
• shorter times to treatment failure (p = 0.037)
• higher body weight (p = 0.044)
• higher heart rate (p = 0.003)
• lower left ventricular ejection fraction (p = 0.016)