Antiarrhythmic drug therapy for sporadic ventricular ectopic arrhythmias.

or quinidine. Two dose schedules were employed; procaine amide, 3.0 and 6.0 g daily and quinidine, 1.2 and 1.8 g daily. Though adequate and even high drug blood levels were reached, an effective antiarrhythmic response was observed in only eight patients receiving procaine amide and in seven of those taking quinidine. These modest successful results were associated with a high incidence of troublesome adverse effects which were noted in 11 patients receiving procaine amide and six of those receiving quinidine. It is concluded that these antiarrhythmic drugs should not be employed in the patient with episodic VEA unless the arrhythmias are symptomatic and are clearly life-threatening.