Antiarrhythmic medications have been available for nearly 100 years and remain a mainstay in the management of atrial fibrillation (AF). Goals of therapy with the use of these drugs include a reduction in the frequency and duration of episodes of arrhythmia as well an emerging goal of reducing mortality and hospitalizations associated with AF. The use of these drugs has been limited by both pro...

inTrodUcTion Antiarrhythmic drugs remain a critically important component of the approach to therapy of cardiac arrhythmias. Over the past 20 years, despite their antiarrhythmic efficacy in many pathological settings, Class I and III antiarrhythmic drugs have been shown to be associated with the development of proarrhythmias and an increase in the likelihood of causing higher mortality by induc...

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES The aim was to investigate the clinical effectiveness of using antiarrhythmic drugs after electrical cardioversion in patients without structural heart disease, including their effect on the maintenance of sinus rhythm. METHODS In total, 528 patients with persistent atrial fibrillation but without significant structural heart disease who underwent successful electr...

Cardiac arrhythmias result from alterations in the orderly sequence of depolarization followed by repolarization in the heart. Cardiac arrhythmias may result in alterations in heart rate or rhythm and arise from alterations in impulse generation or conduction. The clinical implications of disordered cardiac activation range from asymptomatic palpitations to lethal arrhythmia. Pharmacological ma...

The time courses of onset of the electrophysiologic and antiarrhythmic effects of amiodarone were determined with serial electrophysiologic studies in 34 patients with inducible ventricular tachycardia. A standardized oral loading dosage was used for all patients (1,200 mg/day for 14 days; 800 mg/day for 7 days; and 400 mg/day thereafter). Eleven patients had the studies performed at baseline a...

OBJECTIVES This study examined the risk of proarrhythmic events in patients receiving antiarrhythmic drugs for treatment of atrial fibrillation (AF) according to present-day safety guidelines. BACKGROUND Advances in understanding the proarrhythmic risk of antiarrhythmic drugs has led to development of safety guidelines for these agents. Such guidelines were used in the Atrial Fibrillation Fol...

AIMS The purpose of this study was to assess the acute and long-term success of accessory pathway ablation in a single large-volume centre, concentrating on long-term recurrences and the clinical use of antiarrhythmic drugs. METHODS AND RESULTS A total of 519 consecutive patients (mean age 40+/-14 years) underwent radiofrequency ablation of manifest or concealed accessory pathways. The patien...

Survivors of acute myocardial infarction (MI) remain at risk of sudden cardiac death after being discharged from the hospital. In these patients, frequent premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) and depressed ventricular function herald sudden cardiac death.1-3 These observations triggered the idea that if PVCs were suppressed by antiarrhythmic agents, then sudden cardiac death could be avert...

BACKGROUND In vitro studies have reported that beat-to-beat variance in tachycardia cycle length and in conduction and repolarization properties can result in spontaneous termination of reentrant arrhythmias. The purpose of this study was to define the ECG patterns associated with spontaneous termination of ventricular tachycardia in humans late after myocardial infarction. METHODS AND RESULT...