Heart rhythm : the official journal of the Heart Rhythm Society
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Multicenter Study
Early repolarization as a predictor of arrhythmic and nonarrhythmic cardiac events in middle-aged subjects.
Early repolarization (ER) in the inferior/lateral leads predicts mortality, but whether ER is a specific sign of increased risk for arrhythmic events is not known. ⋯ ER in the inferior leads, especially in cases without other QRS complex abnormalities, predicts the occurrence of VT-VF but not nonarrhythmic cardiac events, suggesting that ER is a specific sign of increased vulnerability to ventricular tachyarrhythmias.
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Both type 1 myotonic dystrophy (MD1) and Brugada syndrome (BrS) may be complicated by conduction disturbances and sudden death. Spontaneous BrS has been observed in MD1 patients, but the prevalence of drug-induced BrS in MD1 is unknown. ⋯ BrS is elicited by a Class 1 drug in 18% of MD1 patients presenting with minor depolarization/repolarization abnormalities at baseline, but the finding seems to be devoid of a prognostic role.
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Electrophysiological studies demonstrate that a short atrial fibrillation cycle length (AFCL) is related with poor outcome of electrical cardioversion (ECV) of atrial fibrillation (AF). We found previously that the mechanical AFCL (AFCL-tvi) and atrial fibrillatory velocity (AFV-tvi) may be determined noninvasively using color tissue velocity imaging (TVI) and closely relates to the electrophysiological AFCL. ⋯ Higher atrial fibrillatory wall velocities and longer AFCLs determined by echocardiography are associated with acute and long-term success of ECV.
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Randomized Controlled Trial Multicenter Study
Digoxin in patients with permanent atrial fibrillation: data from the RACE II study.
The Atrial Fibrillation Follow-up Investigation of Rhythm Management trial showed that digoxin was associated with increased mortality in patients with atrial fibrillation. ⋯ The use of digoxin was not associated with increased morbidity and mortality.