Idiopathic ventricular tachycardia (VT) originating from the right ventricular outflow tract (RVOT-VT) and idiopathic RVOT-extrasystoles are generally considered benign arrhythmias. We described three cases who originally presented with typical "benign looking" RVOT-extrasystoles or RVOT-VT but developed malignant polymorphic VT during follow-up. The unusual aspect of their RVOT-extrasystoles w...

Traditionally, catheter ablation of ventricular tachycardia (VT) consists of mapping the circuit during VT, and using pacing maneuvers to localize critical isthmus of the circuit. However, substrate-guided ablation of VT is a relatively new technique and involves identifying potentially arrhythmogenic regions of myocardium in sinus rhythm and avoids the need for mapping during VT. In this short...

Vagal tone (VT), an index of autonomic flexibility, is linked to social and psychological well-being. We posit that the association between VT and well-being reflects an "upward spiral" in which autonomic flexibility, represented by VT, facilitates capitalizing on social and emotional opportunities and the resulting opportunistic gains, in turn, lead to higher VT. Community-dwelling adults were...

Background. Low heart rate variability (HRV) is associated with an increased risk of arrhythmic death and ventricular tachycardia (VT). The purpose of this study was to examine whether there is a temporal relation between changes in HRV and the onset of spontaneous episodes ofVT in patients at high risk of life-threatening arrhythmias. Methods and Results. Components of HRV in the frequency dom...

Ischemic focal ventricular tachycardia (VT) occurs in animals and humans. Angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitors and receptor blockers reduce sudden death in patients with ischemic heart disease. In our dog model of coronary artery occlusion (CAO), we tested the hypothesis that angiotensin II (AGII) will selectively promote focal VT and that the specific AT(2) blocker PD-123319 (PD), or AT(1)...

BACKGROUND Novel therapies aimed at modulating the autonomic nervous system, including thoracic epidural anesthesia (TEA), have been shown in small case series to be beneficial in treating medically refractory ventricular tachycardia (VT) storm. However, it is not clear when these options should be considered. We reviewed a multicenter experience with TEA in the management of VT storm to determ...

VT (Viterbi training), or hard EM, is an efficient way of parameter learning for probabilistic models with hidden variables. Given an observation y , it searches for a state of hidden variables x that maximizes p(x , y | θ) by coordinate ascent on parameters θ and x . In this paper we introduce VT to PRISM, a logic-based probabilistic modeling system for generative models. VT improves PRISM in ...

BACKGROUND We investigated the impact of catheter ablation on ventricular tachycardia (VT) recurrence and survival in a large number of patients with structural heart disease treated in the setting of a dedicated multiskilled unit. METHODS AND RESULTS Since January 2007, we have implemented a multidisciplinary model, aiming for a comprehensive management of VT patients. Programmed ventricular...

BACKGROUND We assessed a novel simultaneous biventricular mapping and ablation approach for septal ventricular tachycardia (VT) in a chronic ovine infarct model. METHODS AND RESULTS In 8 sheep with inducible VT, mapping and ablation were performed 9+/-3 months after percutaneously induced myocardial infarction, with left ventricular ejection fraction 23+/-8%. Scar was identified by EnSite Dyn...

INTRODUCTION The benefit of implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) therapy in patients with haemodynamically stable ventricular tachycardia (VT) is not well documented. METHODS In this single-centre observational study, we examined the medical records of 53 patients (48 men, mean age 66 +/- 1 years) treated with an ICD. The patients were classified into four groups with comparable clini...