BACKGROUND The safety of electronic control devices (ECDs) has been questioned. The goal of this study was to analyze in detail cases of loss of consciousness associated with ECD deployment. METHODS AND RESULTS Eight cases of TASER X26 ECD-induced loss of consciousness were studied. In each instance, when available, police, medical, and emergency response records, ECD dataport interrogation, ...

Left ventricular hypertrophy has been suggested to mediate the relation between hypertension and left atrial enlargement, with associated risks of atrial fibrillation and stroke. However, less is known about correlates of left atrial size in hypertensive patients with left ventricular hypertrophy. We assessed left atrial size by echocardiography in 941 hypertensive patients, age 55 to 80 (mean,...

BACKGROUND The most frequent complications associated with implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) involve the transvenous leads. A subcutaneous implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (S-ICD) has been developed as an alternative system. This study evaluated the safety and effectiveness of the S-ICD System (Cameron Health/Boston Scientific) for the treatment of life-threatening ventricula...

Idiopathic ventricular fibrillation is that which is produced in the absence of structural cardiac disease and of other identifiable causes of ventricular fibrillation such as cardiotoxicity, electrolytical alterations or hereditary predisposition. The case of a healthy male, aged 37, who was asymptomatic until the day he was admitted to hospital where he showed numerous episodes of ventricular...

SUMMARY The effect of lidocaine on the ventricular fibrillation threshold was investigated in the anesthetized open-chest dog during paced supraventricular rhythm, during acute ligation of the anterior descending coronary artery, and during premature ventricular contractions. The minimum current (in milliamperes) required to induce ventricular fibrillation was determined by passing a train (100...

BACKGROUND Moderate exercise training has been shown to decrease sudden cardiac death post myocardial infarction. However, the effects of intensive exercise are still controversial. METHODS AND RESULTS Fourteen myocardial-infarcted rats were divided into sedentary (n=8) and intensive training groups (n=6) and 18 sham control rats to sedentary (n=10) and intensive training groups (n=8). Heart ...

The risk of instantaneous death due to ventricular fibrillation was compared in resting and exercised dogs. Three weeks before testing, all dogs had bipolar left ventricular stimulating electrodes implanted and a reversible snare was placed around the anterior descending coronary artery. The dogs were randomly assigned to either an exercise (13 dogs) or a control (12 dogs) group. We measured ve...

BACKGROUND Implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs), the first line of therapy for preventing sudden cardiac death in high-risk patients, deliver appropriate shocks for termination of ventricular tachycardia (VT)/ventricular fibrillation. A common shortcoming of ICDs is imperfect rhythm discrimination, resulting in the delivery of inappropriate shocks for atrial fibrillation (AF). An unde...

Detection of ventricular tachycardia (VT) and ventricular fibrillation (VF) is crucial for the success of saving the patient’s life. The complexity of the heart signals has changed significantly when the heart state switches. In this study we proposed a novel method for detection of ventricular fibrillation (VF) and ventricular tachycardia (VT), based upon the Lempel-Ziv complexity and Wavelet ...

AIMS Some patients with idiopathic ventricular fibrillation may suffer from the Brugada syndrome. The diagnostic criteria for the Brugada syndrome are uncertain and arbitrarily set. Therefore, we studied the prevalence of the Brugada syndrome using various diagnostic criteria and long-term follow-up in 37 idiopathic ventricular fibrillation patients. METHODS AND RESULTS Idiopathic ventricular...