Electrophysiologic studies in survivors of late cardiac arrest after myocardial infarction.
Nine patients resuscitated from life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias (VA) within 3 months of an acute myocardial infarction (AMI) underwent electrophysiologic studies (EPS) with clinical follow-up for at least 12 months. Neither reinfarction, drug therapy, nor electrolyte imbalance was a precipitating factor. VA was induced by ventricular pacing in six of nine patients. Five patients were prescribed empiric drug therapy, while the four other patients had repeated EPS to select optimal drug therapy. One patient remained unstable and died of VA in the hospital. No patient was discharged and successfully maintained on a drug known to prevent induction of VA, yet only two patients (25%) had a further recurrence of VA, one fatal. Our findings suggested that either drug therapy that is determined empirically or found not to suppress the induction of VA during EPS can be associated with a successful outcome in some of these patients, or the natural history of VA after myocardial infarction is that they are self-limiting in the absence of a new ischemic event.
D001145:Arrhythmias, Cardiac / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000209:etiology / Q000503:physiopathology; D002304:Cardiac Pacing, Artificial; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005260:Female; D006323:Heart Arrest / Q000150:complications / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy; D006352:Heart Ventricles; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000150:complications*