Use of antiarrhythmic drugs in patients with heart failure: clinical efficacy, hemodynamic results, and relation to survival.
Patients with chronic heart failure have a high incidence of both complex ventricular arrhythmias and sudden death. Therefore administration of antiarrhythmic agents to these patients to prevent lethal ventricular arrhythmias is theoretically appealing. However, at present there are no prospective randomized studies supporting this approach, whereas retrospective studies have yielded conflicting results. Moreover, the use of antiarrhythmic agents in patients with heart failure has two potentially serious side effects: worsening of ventricular pump function and exacerbation of ventricular arrhythmias. Such information suggests that the use of antiarrhythmic agents to treat patients with heart failure who do not have symptomatic ventricular arrhythmias is currently not indicated.
D000889:Anti-Arrhythmia Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000503:physiopathology; D006439:Hemodynamics / Q000187:drug effects*; D006801:Humans; D011379:Prognosis
D000889:Anti-Arrhythmia Agents