title: Sustained therapeutic efficacy and safety of oral propafenone for treatment of chronic ventricular arrhythmias: a 2-year experience.
abstract: Thirty-two men with chronic ventricular arrhythmias responded to propafenone, a new potent antiarrhythmic agent, in short-term trials with 85% or greater reduction of total ventricular premature complexes (VPCs) per hour, 95% or greater reduction of ventricular couplets (VCs) per hour, and 100% abolition of ventricular tachycardia (VT) beats per 24 hours. These patients were continued on long-term propafenone therapy to assess sustained therapeutic efficacy and safety. Thirty patients completed 1 year and 26 patients completed 2 years of testing with this agent; one patient died of sudden death and another died of a noncardiac cause. Although there were significantly fewer patient responders at 1 and 2 years, the majority of patients (greater than 79%) continued to respond optimally to propafenone. Side effects were minor and included bitter taste, dizziness, congestive heart failure, fatigue, and significant prolongation of the PR and QRS intervals. Propafenone has sustained antiarrhythmic efficacy after 2 years without serious toxicity.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of Arkansas for Medical Sciences, Little Rock.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Dinh
authors.forename: B J
authors.initials: BJ
authors.lastname: Baker
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: de Soyza
authors.forename: M L
authors.initials: ML
authors.lastname: Murphy
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000097:blood / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology; D002908:Chronic Disease; D004334:Drug Administration Schedule; D004562:Electrocardiography; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic; D011405:Propafenone / Q000009:adverse effects / Q000097:blood / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D013610:Tachycardia / Q000097:blood / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000503:physiopathology
chemical_list: D011405:Propafenone