OBJECTIVE A drug interaction is defined as any alteration, pharmacokinetics and/or pharmacodynamics, produced by different substances, other drug treatments, dietary factors and habits such as drinking and smoking. These interactions can affect the antiarrhythmic drugs, altering their therapeutic efficacy and adverse effects. The aim of this study was to conduct a review of available data about...

BACKGROUND Surviving myocardial cells near the infarct border zone form the arrhythmogenic substrate for sustained ventricular tachycardia (VT) in humans. Infarct-related artery (IRA) patency may modulate the electrophysiological function of this arrhythmogenic substrate and its response to antiarrhythmic drug therapy. We postulated that effective antiarrhythmic drug therapy selected during ser...

AIM To compare ventricular rate responsive (VVIR) pacing with dual chamber rate responsive (DDDR) pacing and antiarrhythmic drugs for the treatment of patients with persistent atrial fibrillation after atrioventricular node ablation. METHODS One hundred two patients with persistent atrial fibrillation eligible for the atrioventricular node ablation were randomly assigned to the therapy with e...

F requent and repetitive forms of premature ventricular complexes (PVCs) have been recognized as independent markers of increased risk for sudden cardiac death in patients with a previous myocardial infarction. On this basis, the Cardiac Arrhythmic Suppression Trial (CAST) was initiated to test the hypothesis that suppression of these ventricular arrhythmias would reduce the incidence of sudden...

BACKGROUND Atrial fibrillation (AF) has been shown to shorten the atrial effective refractory period (ERP) and make the atrium more vulnerable to AF. This study investigated the effect of atrial rate and antiarrhythmic drugs on ERP shortening induced by tachycardia. METHODS AND RESULTS Seventy adult patients without structural heart disease were included. For the first part of the study, righ...

Among implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) recipients, there are patients with recurrent episodes of electrical storm (ES), retractable to the optimal antiarrhythmic drug therapy or invasive ablation procedures. A relatively novel anti-ischemic drug with also antiarrhythmic properties, ranolazine, may effectively suppress ventricular arrhythmias in such patients for a long period of time.

BACKGROUND: The VANISH trial (Ventricular Tachycardia Ablation Versus Escalated Antiarrhythmic Drug Therapy in Ischemic Heart Disease) compared the effectiveness of escalated antiarrhythmic drug therapy to catheter ablation in patients with prior myocardial infarction, an implanted defibrillator, and ventricular tachycardia (VT). The effectiveness of these interventions in patients on sotalol v...

The number of antiarrhythmic drugs has grown dramatically over the last 15 years, because ofthe need for effective and safe agents to prevent or control cardiac arrhythmias. In the clinical situation, logical choice of a particular antiarrhythmic drug depends not only on a demonstration of its effectiveness against various sorts of arrhythmias, but also on a knowledge of its pharmacokinetics, h...

Amiodarone was initially developed 3 decades ago for angina. On the basis of the number of prescriptions filled in retail pharmacies, amiodarone was the most-oftenprescribed antiarrhythmic agent, accounting for 24.1% of the total antiarrhythmic prescriptions in 1998. Amiodarone accounted for 34.5% of prescriptions in Europe, 32.8% in North America, 73.8% in Latin America, and 0.3% in Japan and ...