title: Long-Term Outcome of Patients With Idiopathic Ventricular Fibrillation: A Meta-Analysis.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  The long-term outcome of the patients with idiopathic ventricular fibrillation (IVF) is not well known.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Relevant studies published through May 21, 2014 were searched and identified in the MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Cochrane Library, CINAHL, and EMBASE databases and a hand search of article references was also performed. Random-effect models were used for pooling proportions of mortality and recurrent events. Twenty-three studies were included with a total of 639 patients (449 males) with a mean age ranging from 33 to 51 years. Eighty percent of patients had received ICD implantation. Over an average of 5.3 years follow-up, 167 patients (31%) experienced a recurrence of ventricular arrhythmic events (proportion, 0.29 [95% CI 0.21-0.38]). Moreover, 17 patients (3.1%) died among all studies (proportion, 0.01 [95% CI 0.00-0.04]). No association was found between the induction of sustained ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation at baseline electrophysiological study and risk of recurrent ventricular arrhythmias (risk difference: 0.12 [95% CI, 0.08-0.32]).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  In patients with IVF, this meta-analysis revealed an estimated recurrent event rate of 31% and a pooled mortality rate of 3.1% during an average of 5 years follow-up. The results of baseline electrophysiological studies are not predictive of future ventricular arrhythmias.
authors.affiliation: Cardiac Arrhythmia Service, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.|Department of Cardiology, Suleyman Demirel University Medical Faculty, Isparta, Turkey.
authors.forename: Mehmet
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Ozaydin
authors.affiliation: Cardiac Arrhythmia Service, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Kasra
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Moazzami
authors.affiliation: Cardiac Arrhythmia Service, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Shadi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kalantarian
authors.affiliation: Department of Biostatistics, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Hang
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Cardiac Arrhythmia Service, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Moussa
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Mansour
authors.affiliation: Cardiac Arrhythmia Service, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts, USA.
authors.forename: Jeremy N
authors.initials: JN
authors.lastname: Ruskin
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D017677:Age Distribution; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D015995:Prevalence; D011379:Prognosis; D016016:Proportional Hazards Models; D012008:Recurrence; D012307:Risk Factors; D017678:Sex Distribution; D015996:Survival Rate; D017180:Tachycardia, Ventricular / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality* / Q000628:therapy*; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014693:Ventricular Fibrillation / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality* / Q000628:therapy*
keywords: arrhythmia; fibrillation; mortality; ventricles