title: [Treatment of ventricular tachycardia with propafenone. Parallel study of ventricular provocation tests].
abstract: Propafenone (P), a class IC antiarrhythmic drug, was tested intravenously and orally in the curative and preventive treatment of sustained (VTS) and non-sustained (VTNS) ventricular tachycardia. The 16 patients involved included 11 men and 5 women of mean age 49 years. They all had heart disease: ischaemia in 3, right ventricular arrhythmogenic dysplasia in 6, dilated myocardiopathy in 5 and left ventricular aneurysm in 2. Intravenous P in doses of 1.5 mg/kg controlled VT within 2 or 3 minutes on average in 9 out of 12 patients. Following the injection VT could not be reinduced in 2 out of 10 patients; other inductions were harder to obtain or resulted in VTNS instead of VTS (n = 3), or remained unchanged (n = 5). When P was administered orally (mean dose 900 mg) to 14 patients reinduction of VT was no longer possible in 2 cases, more difficult in 1 case, remained unchanged in 7 cases and was easier in 4 cases. Long-term oral therapy at the same dosage level prevented recurrences of VT in 7 out of 14 patients; the drug was discontinued in 2 patients owing to its arrhythmogenic effect on induced VT. The patients were followed up for 5 to 36 months (mean: 16.4 +/- 11.7 months). In this trial the results of long-term treatment could not be predicted from Holter recordings or measurements of plasma levels.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
mesh_terms: D000284:Administration, Oral; D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D002304:Cardiac Pacing, Artificial; D005260:Female; D006334:Heart Function Tests / Q000379:methods; D006352:Heart Ventricles / Q000187:drug effects / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D007275:Injections, Intravenous; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D011405:Propafenone / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000097:blood / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D013610:Tachycardia / Q000097:blood / Q000188:drug therapy*
chemical_list: D011405:Propafenone
vernacular_title: Traitement des tachycardies ventriculaires par la propafénone. Etude "en parallèle " des tests de provocation ventriculaire.