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Query: UMLS:C0018799 (heart disease)
 34,133 document(s) hit in 31,850,051 MEDLINE articles (0.00 seconds)

The actuarial survival of 60 consecutive recipients of the implanted cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) were compared with 120 matched concurrent medically treated patients using a case-control design. All ICD patients and controls presented with either sustained ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation. Controls were matched to ICD recipients according to 5 variables: age, left ventricular ejection fraction, arrhythmia at presentation, underlying heart disease and drug therapy status. Mean ages were 58 and 59 years in ICD patients and controls, and the average ejection fractions were 36 and 35%. Coronary artery disease was present in 75 and 79% of ICD patients and controls, respectively. During follow-up, sudden deaths were fewer in ICD recipients than in controls (5 vs 10%, p less than 0.01). At 1 and 3 years, actuarial survival was 0.89 vs 0.72 and 0.65 vs 0.49 for ICD recipients and controls. The 5-year actuarial survival curves were significantly different by the Cox proportional hazards model (p less than 0.05). It is concluded that in this retrospective case-control study, the use of the ICD in the management of patients at risk for sudden death results in improved probability of survival.
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PMID:Survival after implantation of the cardioverter defibrillator. 155 27

While clinical management of patients with ventricular arrhythmias continues to evolve, some basic principles are generally accepted. First, patients with sustained ventricular tachyarrhythmias (ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation) require treatment. Second, patients with frequent ventricular ectopy or nonsustained ventricular tachycardia in the absence of underlying structural heart disease do not require treatment except when relief of symptoms is warranted. However, the indication for treatment of patients with frequent ventricular ectopy or nonsustained ventricular tachycardia in the presence of underlying structural heart disease remains uncertain. The concern is that these ventricular arrhythmias may be a precursor for sustained, potentially life-threatening ventricular tachyarrhythmias. Available data suggest that patients with underlying structural heart disease, particularly coronary artery disease and a previous myocardial infarction, who manifest frequent ventricular ectopy or more particularly nonsustained ventricular tachycardia, are at increased risk for sudden cardiac death. However, no studies have demonstrated to date that treatment of these arrhythmias will favorably affect outcome. Data are accumulating to suggest that use of the principles of risk stratification permits identification of patients at very high risk for developing sustained ventricular tachyarrhythmias. Carefully designed clinical trials are required before firm guidelines for the management of these patients can be defined.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:Ventricular arrhythmias in perspective: a current view. 155 84

Twenty-one patients were successfully resuscitated from cardiac arrest. Electrocardiograms (ECG) during cardiac arrest were recorded in 14 patients with ventricular fibrillation in 7, ventricular tachycardia in 4, cardiac standstill in three, Torsade de Points in one and atrial fibrillation with rapid ventricular response in 1. Thirteen patients (group I) had structural heart disease or primary ECG abnormality and 8 patients (group II) had no apparent heart disease. Electrophysiologic study (EPS) was performed in 12 patients of group I and 5 of group II. In group I, ventricular tachycardia was induced in 7, and His-ventricular conduction disturbance was demonstrated in 2, and 2 patients with Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) syndrome had an effective refractory period of the antegrade accessory pathway less than 250 msec. No patients in group II showed abnormal EPS findings. Spasm provocation test was performed in 8 patients (2 in group I and 6 in group II). Coronary spasm was induced in 5 patients (1 in group I and 4 in group II). Two patients in group II had positive results of upright-tilt testing. During the follow-up period, 2 patients died suddenly in group I and 1 patient whose cause of cardiac arrest was unknown had a recurrence of cardiac arrest. In group II, all patients whose etiology could be demonstrated by serial examinations had good prognosis. In conclusion, EPS is useful in evaluation of the cause of cardiac arrest especially when patients have structural heart disease, and coronary spasm may be involved in patients with cardiac arrest without apparent heart disease.
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PMID:Role of electrophysiologic testing and coronary spasm provocation test in survivors of cardiac arrest. 157 5

The implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) has proved to be an efficient device for the treatment of severe ventricular tachyarrhythmias (VT). From May 1985 to August 1991, the ICD was implanted in 107 patients of whom 72% suffered from coronary artery disease, 17% from cardiomyopathy, 5% from long QT-syndrome and 6% from other heart disease. All patients had a life threatening episode of VT or at least one episode of ventricular fibrillation. Of 107 implants, 12% were combined with other heart surgery, 55% were isolated epicardial implantations (epi I) and in 33%, the novel endocardial (endo I) approach was chosen. Between epi I and endo I we found no difference in operation time, but time for ICU and in-hospital stay was significantly shorter using the transvenous approach. In addition, sensing and pacing capability of the endocardial screw-in electrode was superior and the need for thoracotomy was avoided, a particular advantage in patients with previous heart surgery. Complications after epi I were: temporary low cardiac output, 1; perioperative death, 2; infection, 3, and after endo I: electrode dislocation, 2. Hence, endo I may become the method of choice for patients without concomitant surgery.
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PMID:Superiority of endocardial versus epicardial implantation of the implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD). 158 94

The etiologies of sudden cardiac death following the surgical treatment of congenital heart defects remain uncertain. A young patient with prior repair of partial anomalous pulmonary venous return is presented, in whom brief episodes of a supraventricular tachyarrhythmia (rate 170/min) were documented to result in ventricular fibrillation. This unusual sequence may represent a basis for unexplained sudden cardiac death in other patients following atrial surgical procedures for the treatment of congenital heart disease.
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PMID:Supraventricular tachyarrhythmias, congenital heart disease, and sudden cardiac death. 161 16

Only 30-40% of all victims of sudden cardiac death could so far be classified as risk patients during their lifetime. Risk factors for sudden death have little predictive value in an asymptomatic population: for example, the typical risk profile for the presence of coronary heart disease and changes in the surface-ECG at rest and especially in the surface-ECG under stress. Usually, the victims of sudden cardiac death among top performance athletes have been suffering from a heart disease of which they knew nothing beforehand: below 40 years of age, mostly from hypertrophic cardiomyopathy; beyond 40, predominantly from coronary heart disease. Among the heart diseases, sudden cardiac death is the cause of death most often in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, in dilatative cardiomyopathy and in certain types of coronary heart disease. Notwithstanding the employment of fully update cardiological diagnostics the risk patients cannot be identified with reliable precision among those suffering from these diseases. It is only clinically manifest persistent ventricular tachycardia or successful reanimation in case of ventricular fibrillation that will definitely pinpoint the patient as being at risk of sudden cardiac death also in the future.
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PMID:[Sudden cardiac death: can individual risk be predicted?]. 161 27

Ventricular fibrillation and sudden death are rare phenomena in nonischemic ventricular arrhythmia, particularly in arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy. In most instances electrophysiologic studies help to assess the risk of sudden death, but sometimes programmed ventricular stimulation is unsuccessful. Among 48 patients with ventricular fibrillation (n = 9) and sustained (n = 25) and nonsustained (n = 19) ventricular tachycardia, invasive and noninvasive diagnostic tests (coronary angiography, biventricular angiography, programmed ventricular stimulation, and echocardiography) were performed to obtain more information about the underlying heart disease. In 43 patients (90%) arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy was diagnosed with segmental hypokinesia (n = 31) and diffuse hypokinesia (n = 12) of the right ventricle. In patients with documented ventricular fibrillation, the right ventricular ejection fraction was lower (30.8% vs 47.8% and 45.9%, respectively) and multisegmental contraction impairment of the right ventricle was significantly more frequent (p less than 0.001). Additional left ventricular abnormalities and right ventricular dilatation were not significant parameters for identifying high-risk patients. In addition to programmed ventricular stimulation, quantitative analysis of the results of right and left ventricular angiography contributes to risk assessment in patients with nonischemic ventricular arrhythmia.
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PMID:Risk assessment in nonischemic ventricular arrhythmia by left and right ventriculography. 161 93

Sudden cardiac death is a challenge for primary prevention efforts, the rescue system, and the prophylactic antiarrhythmic medical therapy. A prerequisite for the successful prevention is insight into the pathophysiologic interaction of the arrhythmogenic substrate, the ischemic events, the autonomous nervous system, ventricular premature beats, left-ventricular function, etc. Latest results of prophylactic antiarrhythmic therapy indicate that the benefit under a specific antiarrhythmic treatment depends on the ratio of antiarrhythmic to proarrhythmic effects and the prevalence of sudden cardiac death in a given population. In diseased hearts with ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation the chance of sudden cardiac death is high, therefore, antiarrhythmic therapy is indicated and should be controlled by programmed stimulation. In patients with a low likelihood of sudden cardiac death after myocardial infarction, beta receptor blockers should be given; in certain higher risk patients (non-sustained ventricular tachycardia, reduced left-ventricular function) class-III antiarrhythmic agents are recommended. In hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (less in dilative cardiomyopathy) a beneficial effect of amiodarone becomes apparent in subgroups with high risk. Treatment of symptomatic ventricular premature beats remains empiric; in case of no or minimal structural heart disease, the arrhythmogenic potential is low. For the management of recurrent ventricular tachycardia new concepts are proposed that include antiarrhythmic agents and magnesium.
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PMID:[Sudden cardiac death--possibilities and limits of drug therapy]. 162 3

Exercise testing is an important noninvasive method for the exposure of arrhythmias. It provides complementary information to that obtained from ambulatory monitoring or electrophysiologic testing. By producing a number of important physiologic changes, especially activation of the sympathetic nervous system and an increase in circulating catecholamines, exercise testing provides a more complete assessment. On continuous monitoring, exercise-induced ventricular premature beats may be found in up to 34% of healthy subjects, in 60 to 70% of those with heart disease and in all patients who have experienced sustained ventricular tachycardia. Couplets or nonsustained ventricular tachycardia can be found during exercise in 0 to 6% of healthy subjects, in 15 to 31% of patients with heart disease and in 75% of those with sustained ventricular tachycardia. Even in patients with heart disease, there is only a small risk of inducing sustained ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation during exercise. The prognostic relevance of exercise-induced ventricular arrhythmias in patients with coronary artery disease or cardiomyopathy has not been clearly established. There appears to be an increased risk, however, in patients with ventricular premature beats as well as ST-segment depression or in patients with repetitive forms of ventricular arrhythmias during exercise which cannot be medically controlled. In healthy subjects, exercise-induced ventricular premature beats are of no prognostic relevance. In particular, for patients in whom arrhythmias are induced by exercise, exercise testing should be used to assess the effectiveness of antiarrhythmic drug treatment. Importantly, serious cardiac toxicity, often not observed at rest or during routine activities, may become apparent during exercise testing. It should be a standard part of arrhythmia assessment and management.
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PMID:Evaluation of cardiac arrhythmias by exercise testing. 169 Jan 68

The incidence and the direct cause of syncope in ventricular tachycardia (VT) among patients with old myocardial infarction (OMI, n = 48), dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM, n = 18) and no evidence of heart disease (IVT, n = 43) were compared. The presence or absence of syncope in each patient was surveyed by a standardized questionnaire and a variety of electrocardiographic parameters for aggravating arrhythmias were measured. Syncope occurred in 19 of 43 OMI patients (40%), in 5 of 18 DCM patients (28%) and 6 of 43 IVT patients (14%) and significantly more often in OMI than IVT (p less than 0.01). Ventricular fibrillation (VF) was confirmed in 14 of the 19 OMI patients with syncope, in 3 of the 5 DCM patients with syncope and 1 of 6 IVT patients with syncope. The incidence of VF was significantly higher in OMI than in IVT (p less than 0.01). Mean VT cycle lengths (VTRR'm) in OMI patients with and without syncope were 0.35 +/- 0.07 sec and 0.42 +/- 0.10 sec, respectively (p less than 0.05). VTRR'ms in DCM patients with and without syncope were 0.43 +/- 0.10 sec and 0.42 +/- 0.10 sec, respectively (NS). VTRR'ms in IVT patients with and without syncope were 0.27 +/- 0.04 sec and 0.41 +/- 0.10 sec, respectively (p less than 0.01). The results show that the high frequency of VT rate was the main cause of syncope in IVT, while VF was the main cause of syncope in OMI.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
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PMID:Evaluation of ventricular tachycardia with respect to syncope in patients with old myocardial infarction, dilated cardiomyopathy and no overt heart disease. 170 81


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