A 10-year-old boy with varicella developed syncopal episodes caused by runs of self-terminating ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation. These arrhythmias were thought to be caused by varicella myocarditis and were resistant to most common antiarrhythmic agents. Continuous electrocardiographic recording and analysis proved extremely useful in the management of this case. Mexiletine...

The management of patients with atrial fibrillation has changed considerably over the past decade, largely because of data derived from clinical trials. Although studies comparing strategies of rate control vs. rhythm control consistently failed to demonstrate the benefit of a rhythm control strategy, to argue that rhythm control is of no value to argue with imprecision. AFFIRM, the largest of ...

PURPOSE The purpose of this study was to ascertain, in the context of an integrated health care delivery system, the association between a comprehensive list of drugs known to have potential QT liability and QT prolongation or shortening. METHODS By using a self-controlled crossover study with 59 467 subjects, we ascertained intra-individual change in log-linear regression-corrected QT (QTcre...

Atrial fibrillation is the most common sustained arrhythmia. Because of the sub-optimal outcomes and associated risks of medical therapy as well as the recent advances in non-pharmacologic strategies, a multitude of combined (hybrid) algorithms have been introduced that improve efficacy of standalone therapies while maintaining a high safety profile. Antiarrhythmic administration enhances succe...

BACKGROUND The objective of this study was to determine the association between the use of antiarrhythmic agents and the risk of malignant neoplasm of liver and intrahepatic bile ducts (MNLIHD). METHODS We used the research database of the Taiwan National Health Insurance Program to conduct a population-based, case-control study. We identified 9944 patients with antiarrhythmic history who wer...

In Traditional Chinese Medicine, stimulation of the Neiguan spot has been utilized to treat palpitations and symptoms related to different cardiovascular diseases. We evaluated whether acupuncture might exert an antiarrhythmic effect on patients with paroxysmal or persistent atrial fibrillation (AF). Two sets of data are reviewed. The first included patients with persistent AF who underwent ele...

AIMS Benefits and complications of postoperative implantable cardioverter-defibrillator tests are controversial matters. This study sought to assess the necessity of defibrillation function tests after implantation. METHODS AND RESULTS We retrospectively analysed 1007 implantable cardioverter-defibrillator tests in 587 systems and 556 patients. Nine hundred and thirty implantable cardioverter...

Combinations of antiarrhythmic drugs are frequently used to treat refractory ventricular tachycardia (VT), but few scientific data support this practice. We examined the efficacy and electrophysiology of 110 antiarrhythmic drug combination trials at electrophysiologic study in 74 patients with recurrent ventricular tachycardia. Lidocaine was combined with quinidine in 33 trials, procainamide in...

N,N-bis (phenylcarbamoylmethyl) dimethylammonium chloride (QX-572) was given to I2 patients with ventricular tachyarrhythmias resistant to other antiarrhythmic drugs, especially lignocaine. Most patients had acute myocardial infarction. The drug was slowly infused intravenously (8 mg/kg during 30 minutes) and wasfound very potent with afully developed effect after about 20 munutes. In 9 of the ...

Flecainide acetate, a new antiarrhythmic agent, possesses favorable pharmacokinetic and hemodynamic properties and demonstrates highly favorable antiarrhythmic activity in patients with ventricular arrhythmias. However, the proarrhythmic potential of flecainide deserves further evaluation. In 7 (13%) of 55 consecutive patients treated with oral flecainide, 200 to 600 mg/day, for complex ventric...