title: n-3 Fatty acids and ventricular arrhythmias in patients with ischaemic heart disease and implantable cardioverter defibrillators.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To investigate the relationship between serum content of n-3 polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA) and the incidence of ventricular arrhythmias in patients with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD).
  
  
  METHODS
  We included 98 patients with ischaemic heart disease and an ICD. The numbers of ventricular fibrillation (VF) and ventricular tachycardia (VT) events were assessed during a 12-month period and related to the concentration of n-3 PUFA in serum phospholipids.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Patients with more than one arrhythmic event had significantly lower n-3 PUFA levels compared with patients without arrhythmias (mean 7.1% vs 9.2%, P<0.01). Dividing the patients into quintiles according to their n-3 PUFA level those with the lowest content of n-3 PUFA had more ventricular arrhythmias than patients with the highest concentration of n-3 PUFA (mean 1.3 event vs 0.2 event, P<0.05).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Patients with a low content of n-3 PUFA in serum had a higher incidence of ventricular arrhythmias compared with patients with high serum levels of n-3 PUFA. The data suggest that the protection offered by n-3 PUFA against sudden cardiac death observed in previous studies is mediated by a direct antiarrhythmic effect of n-3 PUFA.
authors.affiliation: Department of Nephrology, Aalborg Hospital, Arhus University Hospital, 9100 Aalborg, Denmark. jhc@dadlnet.dk
authors.forename: Jeppe Hagstrup
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Christensen
authors.forename: Sam
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Riahi
authors.forename: Erik Berg
authors.initials: EB
authors.lastname: Schmidt
authors.forename: Henning
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Mølgaard
authors.forename: Anders
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Kirstein Pedersen
authors.forename: Finn
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Heath
authors.forename: Jens
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Cosedis Nielsen
authors.forename: Egon
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Toft
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D017147:Defibrillators, Implantable; D015525:Fatty Acids, Omega-3 / Q000097:blood*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D017202:Myocardial Ischemia / Q000097:blood / Q000150:complications* / Q000628:therapy; D017180:Tachycardia, Ventricular / Q000097:blood*; D014693:Ventricular Fibrillation / Q000097:blood*
chemical_list: D015525:Fatty Acids, Omega-3