European heart journal
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European heart journal · Mar 1985
Clinical significance of nonclinical ventricular tachycardia induced in amiodarone-treated patients.
The clinical significance of sustained nonclinical ventricular tachycardia (VT) induced during electrophysiologic studies was studied in 10 amiodarone-treated patients. Nine patients had previous myocardial infarction while 1 patient had right ventricular dysplasia. All patients had only a single morphologic type of VT recorded during the multiple spontaneous episodes of tachycardia. ⋯ Nonclinical VT was sustained, requiring cardioversion (7 patients) or rapid ventricular pacing (3 patients) for termination. After a mean follow-up period of 27 +/- 10 months (range 12 to 36 months), 4 patients did not exhibit recurrent VT, 3 patients with inducible clinical VT experienced a recurrent episode of clinical VT after 16, 27 and 49 months, respectively, 2 patients had nonarrhythmia related deaths after 11 and 12 months, and 1 patient died suddenly after 17 months. These results suggest that laboratory induction of sustained nonclinical VT in amiodarone-treated patients does not imply the likelihood of their future spontaneous occurrence and, therefore, their prevention may not be required.
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European heart journal · Mar 1985
Randomized Controlled Trial Comparative Study Clinical TrialMetoprolol in acute myocardial infarction (MIAMI). A randomised placebo-controlled international trial. The MIAMI Trial Research Group.
The effect of metoprolol on mortality and morbidity after 15 days, was compared with that of placebo in a double-blind randomised international trial (the MIAMI trial) in patients with definite or suspected acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Treatment with intravenous metoprolol (15 mg) or placebo was started shortly after the patient's arrival in hospital within 24 h of the onset of symptoms, and then oral treatment (200 mg daily) was continued for the study period (15 days). Of the 5778 patients included, 2901 were allocated to placebo and 2877 to metoprolol. ⋯ There was no significant effect on ventricular fibrillation but the number of episodes tended to be lower in the metoprolol treated patients during the later phase (6-15 days; 24 vs 54 episodes). The incidence of supraventricular tachyarrhythmias, the use of cardiac glycosides and other antiarrhythmics, and the need for pain-relieving treatment were significantly diminished by metoprolol amongst all randomised patients. Adverse events associated with metoprolol were infrequent, expected, and relatively mild.