BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES Ventricular fibrillation (VF) can inadvertently occur during electrophysiologic study (EPS) or catheter ablation. We investigated the incidence, cause, and progress of inadvertently developed VF during EPS and catheter ablation. SUBJECTS AND METHODS We reviewed patients who had developed inadvertent VF during EPS or catheter ablation. Patients who developed VF during...

OBJECTIVES We performed a meta-analysis of prognostic studies of patients with a Brugada ECG to assess predictors of events. BACKGROUND The Brugada syndrome is an increasingly recognized cause of idiopathic ventricular fibrillation; however, there is wide variation in the prognosis of patients with the Brugada ECG. METHODS AND RESULTS We retrieved 30 prospective studies of patients with the...

‘You have a ticking time-bomb in your body’ is an expression too commonly used by cardiovascular surgeons when counseling patients with asymptomatic aortic aneurysm. Such patients find it difficult to cope with their ‘ticking-bomb’ dilemma—which sooner or later may blow-out their aorta— and often opt for invasive therapy before the ‘risk-vs.benefits’ section of the discussion is over. Based on ...

The cycle length (CL) of atrial fibrillation (AF) may have clinical utility, yet reliable CL measurements typically require invasive electrophysiologic study (EPS). We hypothesized that autocorrelation analysis of the ECG accurately reflects intra-atrial CL in AF, and is more robust than spectral analysis from QRS-subtracted ECGs. Methods We studied 39 patients undergoing AF ablation. For ECG l...

BACKGROUND Syncope is a well-known risk factor for adverse cardiovascular event in patients with coronary artery disease, especially those with previous myocardial infarction (MI) or left ventricular dysfunction. The aim of this study was to assess electrophysiologic findings and results of head-up tilt test (HUTT) in patients with syncope and without orthostatic changes in blood pressure durin...

OBJECTIVES MADIT II like patients have not been compared to patients without an electrophysiological study, patients in whom ventricular tachycardia or fibrillation were induced in an electrophysiological study (EPS) and patients without an inducibility in EPS in one study. BACKGROUND The multicenter automatic defibrillator implantation trial (MADIT) II showed a benefit of ICD implantation in...