Sustained ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation are life-threatening arrhythmias with high rates of recurrence.1'2 Empiric antiarrhythmic drug therapy has a low success rate for preventing recurrences of these arrhythmias.3 Therefore, the choice of drug therapy has centered around two methodologies to predict drug efficacy: programmed ventricular stimulation with serial drug test...

BRL-32872 is a new antiarrhythmic drug with balanced class-III and class-IV actions as categorized by the Vaughan-Williams classification. BRL-32872 blocks the rapid component of the cardiac delayed rectifier potassium channel IK(r) (IC(50) = 28 nM) and its molecular correlate HERG ("Human-ether-a-go-go related gene," IC(50) of 19.8 nM in cell lines) at low concentrations. It also inhibits the ...

Antiarrhythmic therapy can have a key role in prolonging the lives of patients with most common atrial tachyarrhythmias such as atrial flutter (AFL) or atrial fibrillation (AF). The optimal use of antiarrhytmic drug therapy depends in part on understanding the underlying mechanisms of AFL and AF and pharmacodynamis of each antiarrhythmic drug. Currently, there is a large body of experimental an...

OBJECTIVES This study evaluates the clinical efficacy of d,l-sotalol in patients with sustained ventricular tachyarrhythmias. BACKGROUND D,l-sotalol is an important antiarrhythmic agent to prevent recurrences of sustained ventricular tachyarrhythmias (VT/VF). However, evidence is lacking that an antiarrhythmic agent like d,l-sotalol can reduce the incidence of sustained ventricular tachyarrhy...

The development of novel drugs specifically directed at the ion channels underlying particular features of cardiac action potential (AP) initiation, recovery, and refractoriness would contribute to an optimized approach to antiarrhythmic therapy that minimizes potential cardiac and extracardiac toxicity. Of these, K+ channels contribute numerous and diverse currents with specific actions on dif...

Predominantly a disease of advancing age, atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common sustained arrhythmia. Its prevalence is rising as the proportion of elderly people in the population continues its inexorable rise. Without more effective therapeutic interventions, AF-related cardiovascular and cerebrovascular morbidity and mortality will also continue to rise. Antiarrhythmic drugs are an ess...

BACKGROUND To test the hypothesis that a high C reactive protein (CRP) concentration would predict recurrence of atrial fibrillation (AF) after cardioversion in patients taking antiarrhythmic drugs. METHODS 111 patients who underwent direct current cardioversion for symptomatic AF were enrolled. Blood was drawn for CRP determination before cardioversion on the same day. All patients were taki...

RATIONALE Flecainide prevents arrhythmias in catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia, but the antiarrhythmic mechanism remains unresolved. It is possible for flecainide to directly affect the cardiac ryanodine receptor (RyR2); however, an extracellular site of action is suggested because of the hydrophilic nature of flecainide. OBJECTIVE To investigate the mechanism for the anti...

BACKGROUND A prolonged QTc interval is considered a contraindication for class III antiarrhythmic drugs, but the influence of a normal or a slightly increased baseline QTc interval on the risk or benefit of treatment with a class III antiarrhythmic drug is not sufficiently clarified. METHODS AND RESULTS This prospectively defined substudy included 703 patients enrolled in the Danish Investiga...

Results of the survey which conducted with specialists who involved in treatment patients atrial fibrillation regarding strategy, choice antiarrhythmic drugs and anticoagulants a comparison data from real clinical practice current guidelines are presented.