title: Value of Holter monitoring in identifying risk for sustained ventricular arrhythmia recurrence on amiodarone.
abstract: Seventy-four patients with sustained ventricular tachyarrhythmias had 22 +/- 3 hours of Holter monitoring before and after 11 +/- 6 days of amiodarone treatment. On control Holter recordings, 55 patients (group I) had frequent (more than 10 extrasystoles per hour) and/or complex (at least couplets) ventricular ectopic activity (VEA), and 19 patients (group II) had infrequent and simple VEA. A positive Holter monitor response to amiodarone was defined as a decrease in VEA by more than 85% and abolition of all complex VEA. In group I, 34 patients (62%) had a positive Holter monitor response. In group II, 16 patients (84%) had persistent, infrequent and simple VEA and 3 had frequent and/or complex VEA. During a mean follow-up of 13 +/- 12 months, 22 patients (30%) had ventricular tachycardia (VT) or sudden death. In group I, VT or sudden death occurred in 6 of 34 (18%) patients with a positive Holter monitor response and 11 of 21 (52%) with a negative Holter monitor response (p less than 0.01), and in group II, VT or sudden death occurred in 5 of 16 patients (31%) with persistent, infrequent and simple VEA. All episodes of VT or sudden death occurred after at least 2 weeks of amiodarone therapy (mean 5 +/- 6 months). The predictive accuracy of a positive Holter monitor response as an indicator for subsequent prevention of sustained ventricular tachyarrhythmias and sudden cardiac death was 82% and for a negative Holter monitor response as an indicator of tachyarrhythmia or sudden death recurrence on therapy it was 52%.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000553:Ambulatory Care; D000638:Amiodarone / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D001572:Benzofurans / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D004562:Electrocardiography; D004594:Electrophysiology; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006352:Heart Ventricles / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D008991:Monitoring, Physiologic / Q000295:instrumentation*; D011446:Prospective Studies; D012008:Recurrence; D012306:Risk; D014693:Ventricular Fibrillation / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000503:physiopathology
chemical_list: D001572:Benzofurans; D000638:Amiodarone