Empirical versus tested antitachycardia pacing in implantable cardioverter defibrillators: a prospective study including 200 patients.

Prospective randomized multicenter trial of empirical antitachycardia pacing versus shocks for spontaneous rapid ventricular tachycardia in patients with implantable cardioverter-defibrillators: Pacing Fast Ventricular Tachycardia Reduces Shock Therapies (PainFREE Rx II) trial results.

BACKGROUND Successful antitachycardia pacing (ATP) terminates ventricular tachycardia (VT) up to 250 bpm without the need for painful shocks in implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) patients. Fast VT (FVT) >200 bpm is often treated by shock because of safety concerns, however. This prospective, randomized, multicenter trial compares the safety and utility of empirical ATP with shocks for...

Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator Shock Despite Termination of Ventricular Tachycardia by Antitachycardia Pacing During Charging

Incidence and clinical relevance of slow ventricular tachycardia in implantable cardioverter-defibrillator recipients: an international multicenter prospective study.

BACKGROUND This study aims to assess the incidence and clinical relevance of slow ventricular tachycardia (VT) and the effectiveness and/or deleterious effects of antitachycardia pacing in slow VT in implantable cardioverter-defibrillator recipients. METHODS AND RESULTS This multicenter prospective randomized study included 374 patients (326 men) without prior history of slow VT (<148 bpm) im...

Antitachycardia pacing to terminate ventricular tachyarrhythmia: new insights into how to reduce painful implantable cardioverter defibrillator shocks.

This editorial refers to ‘Safety and efficacy of programming a high number of antitachycardia pacing attempts for fast ventricular tachycardia: a prospective study’ by R.P. Martins et al., on page 1457 and ‘First inappropriate implantable cardioverter defibrillator therapy is often due to inaccurate device programming: analysis of the French OPERA registry’ by A. Leenhardt et al., on page 1465

Appropriate and Inappropriate Ventricular Therapies, Quality of Life, and Mortality Among Primary and Secondary Prevention Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator Patients

Background—Implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) reduce mortality in primary and secondary prevention. Quality of life, mortality, appropriate therapies for specific ventricular rhythms, and inappropriate therapies for supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) were compared among 582 patients (primary prevention 248; secondary prevention 334) in PainFREE Rx II, a 634-patient prospective, rand...