title: Marked attenuation of shock burden by the use of antitachycardia pacing therapy in a patient with an implanted cardioverter-defibrillator.
abstract: A 76-year-old man was admitted to our institution for elective exchange of his implanted cardioverter-defibrillator generator. Nine years earlier, he had been diagnosed with nonischemic cardiomyopathy and nonsustainable ventricular tachycardia. At that time, he had received a single-chamber implanted cardioverter-defibrillator, which was upgraded to a dual-chamber implanted cardioverter-defibrillator 3 years later. In the course of the current admission, routine device interrogation during exchange of the patient's implanted cardioverter-defibrillator generator revealed 150 episodes of ventricular tachycardia in the preceding 7 months, 137 of which had been successfully treated by antitachycardia pacing therapy without shock. These findings show the remarkable effectiveness of antitachycardia pacing in terminating ventricular tachycardia while preventing the delivery of shocks, minimizing patient discomfort, and avoiding implanted cardioverter-defibrillator battery depletion.
authors.affiliation: Department of Adult Cardiology, Texas Heart Institute at St. Luke's Episcopal Hospital, Houston, Texas 77030, USA.
authors.forename: Leila
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Ganjehei
authors.forename: Alireza
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Nazeri
authors.forename: Ali
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Massumi
authors.forename: Mehdi
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Razavi
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D002304:Cardiac Pacing, Artificial; D017147:Defibrillators, Implantable; D020878:Device Removal; D004554:Electric Countershock / Q000295:instrumentation*; D011211:Electric Power Supplies; D004867:Equipment Design; D004868:Equipment Failure; D006339:Heart Rate; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010138:Pacemaker, Artificial; D017180:Tachycardia, Ventricular / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000628:therapy*; D016896:Treatment Outcome