title: Determinants of prognosis in ventricular tachyarrhythmia patients without induced sustained arrhythmias.
abstract: We studied 59 patients with sustained ventricular tachycardia (VT) or ventricular fibrillation in whom programmed stimulation induced 15 or fewer repetitive ventricular complexes. During follow-up of 2.2 +/- 1.5 years, 13 patients had an arrhythmia recurrence and seven died suddenly. At 1, 2, and 3 years, the actuarial incidence of arrhythmia recurrence was 15 +/- 5%, 17 +/- 5%, and 23 +/- 6%, and that of sudden death was 6 +/- 4%, 15 +/- 6%, and 21 +/- 8%. Prior myocardial infarction (MI) was the only independent predictor of arrhythmia recurrence (p less than 0.02) and sudden death (p = 0.05): at 2 years, 36 +/- 12% of 18 patients with MI and 8 +/- 4% of 41 patients without MI had arrhythmia recurrence, and 24 +/- 12% with MI and 3 +/- 3% without MI died suddenly. None of the nine patients with greater than or equal to 70% coronary stenosis but no MI had arrhythmia recurrence after anti-ischemic therapy. Possible arrhythmia-precipitating conditions were present during all arrhythmias in 14 patients, but did not predict freedom from arrhythmia recurrence (p = 0.52) or sudden death (p = 0.81). The maximum number of induced ventricular complexes did not predict arrhythmia recurrence or sudden death: for patients with 0 to 2, 3 to 5, and 6 to 15 induced complexes, the 2-year incidence of arrhythmia recurrence was 16 +/- 7%, 15 +/- 10%, and 18 +/- 10%; for sudden death, it was 9 +/- 6%, 0 +/- 0%, and 14 +/- 9%. In this group of patients, prior MI predicted arrhythmia recurrence and sudden death.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000209:etiology* / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy; D003645:Death, Sudden / Q000209:etiology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011336:Probability; D011379:Prognosis; D012008:Recurrence; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013610:Tachycardia / Q000209:etiology* / Q000401:mortality / Q000628:therapy; D014693:Ventricular Fibrillation / Q000209:etiology / Q000401:mortality