title: [Control of the efficacy of anti-arrhythmia drug therapy with the ambulatory electrocardiogram. Proposal for a new analytical statistical model].
abstract: Ambulatory electrocardiography is used for evaluating antiarrhythmic drug effectiveness. Statistical methods based on the analysis of the number of ventricular ectopic beats are currently employed. These techniques are not useful to compare groups of patients with different therapies, due to the wide spontaneous variability of the ectopic beats. We propose a new statistical method, based on the likelihood function. The new method has been tested both retrospectively on 102 patients treated with different antiarrhythmic drugs and prospectively on 12 patients subjected to three consecutive control ambulatory electrocardiograms and to a fourth one after treatment with propafenone. This new statistical method was found to be useful for comparing therapeutic effectiveness between groups of patients, whereas the traditional quantitative methods are to be preferred when drug effectiveness is evaluated in the single patient.
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bobbio
authors.forename: A
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Vado
authors.forename: E
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Uslenghi
authors.forename: M
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Bocchiardo
authors.forename: F
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Gaita
mesh_terms: D000319:Adrenergic beta-Antagonists / Q000627:therapeutic use; D000889:Anti-Arrhythmia Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology; D004562:Electrocardiography; D006801:Humans; D011405:Propafenone; D011427:Propiophenones / Q000627:therapeutic use; D011446:Prospective Studies; D011802:Quinidine / Q000627:therapeutic use; D012189:Retrospective Studies
chemical_list: D000319:Adrenergic beta-Antagonists; D000889:Anti-Arrhythmia Agents; D011427:Propiophenones; D011405:Propafenone; D011802:Quinidine
vernacular_title: Controllo dell'efficacia della terapia antiaritmica con elettrocardiogramma dinamico. Proposta di un nuovo modello statistico di analisi.