American heart journal
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American heart journal · Mar 1985
Ventricular arrhythmias in severe heart failure: incidence, significance, and effectiveness of antiarrhythmic therapy.
Forty-three patients receiving maximal medical therapy for severe chronic heart failure from dilated cardiomyopathies (28 ischemic, 15 idiopathic) and ventricular premature beats (VPBs) on the 12-lead ECG had baseline 24-hour ambulatory ECG monitoring. Complex VPBs (multiform, repetitive--couplets, R on T phenomenon) and asymptomatic, nonsustained ventricular tachycardia were present in 38 patients (88%) and 22 patients (51%), respectively. Twenty-three patients (group I) were placed on long-term antiarrhythmic therapy (20 patients received procainamide and the remaining quinidine). ⋯ No significant differences in the incidence of sudden death and overall mortality were noted between the two groups. Among patients with nonsustained ventricular tachycardia, those who died suddenly had a lower mean left ventricular ejection fraction (0.15 +/- 0.01) when compared to the survivors (0.23 +/- 0.02; p less than 0.01). It is concluded that patients with severe heart failure have a high mortality from both sudden and nonsudden cardiac death, incidence of complex VPBs is very high, sudden death is more common when the left ventricular function is severely compromised, and apparently, therapeutic plasma levels of conventional antiarrhythmic drugs do not protect this group of patients from dying.