This special issue contains results of the second ‘‘Sisyphus’’ study carried out in the knowledge acquisition community in the period 1992 – 1995 . The Sisyphus initiative arose at the 1990 European Knowledge Acquisition Workshop in Driebergen (The Netherlands) . To explain the rationale behind this initiative it is necessary to give a brief synopsis of the recent history of the knowledge-engin...

BACKGROUND Low heart rate variability (HRV) is associated with an increased risk of arrhythmic death and ventricular tachycardia (VT). The purpose of this study was to examine whether there is a temporal relation between changes in HRV and the onset of spontaneous episodes of VT in patients at high risk of life-threatening arrhythmias. METHODS AND RESULTS Components of HRV in the frequency do...

BACKGROUND Sustained ventricular tachycardia (VT) and fibrillation (VF) occur in up to 20% of patients with acute myocardial infarction (MI) and have been associated with a poor prognosis. The relationships among the type of arrhythmia (VT versus VF or both), time of VT/VF occurrence, use of thrombolytic agents, and eventual outcome are unclear. METHODS AND RESULTS In the GUSTO-I study, we ex...

Idiopathic ventricular tachycardia (VT) is a relatively benign and rare form of VT. It is seen in young people without demonstrable cardiac pathology. The aim of our study was to review the clinical picture of idiopathic VT, before evaluating the indications for antiarrhythmic treatment and the efficacy of radiofrequency ablation (RFA). The notes of patients diagnosed with idiopathic VT in the ...

BACKGROUND In the early 1980s, studies performed in highly selected referral patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy reported a strong association between the presence of brief episodes of ventricular tachycardia (VT) on ambulatory ECG monitoring and sudden death. These observations led to antiarrhythmic treatment in many patients with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and brief episodes of VT. In ...

The hemolytic uremic syndrome (HUS) is the most common cause of acute renal failure in children. The role of a verocytotoxin (VT)-producing Escherichia coli has been strongly implicated in the epidemic form of HUS. Although direct toxicity of VT on glomerular endothelial cells has been demonstrated, it remained still unclear how the VT is transported from the intestine to the target organs. In ...

The results of 206 programmed ventricular stimulation studies performed in 130 patients (100 men and 30 women, mean age 62 +/- 12 years, +/- standard deviation) were examined prospectively to determine the sequelae of nonsustained polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (VT) induced during programmed ventricular stimulation. The clinical indication for the electrophysiologic study was either docume...

Radiofrequency epicardial ablation of ventricular tachycardia (VT) is a safe, effective modality for treatment of VT.1 Epicardial VT circuits were originally described in Chagas disease, but the importance of nonendocardial substrates for VT increasingly are recognized in other cardiomyopathies.2 In arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy (ARVC), failure of endocardial VT ablation often...