IMPORTANCE Atrial fibrillation (AF) is the most common rhythm disorder seen in clinical practice. Antiarrhythmic drugs are effective for reduction of recurrence in patients with symptomatic paroxysmal AF. Radiofrequency ablation is an accepted therapy in patients for whom antiarrhythmic drugs have failed; however, its role as a first-line therapy needs further investigation. OBJECTIVE To comp...

PRELIMINARY STUDIES " suggested that the capacity of a drug to suppress ventricular arrhythmia might be inherent in a chemical structure which does not possess certain actions previously associated with antiarrhythmic activity, e.g., elevation of electric threshold, depression of conduction, and local anesthesia. Ambonestyl, 2-diethylaminoethyl-isonicotinamide,* (MC 4112), was found to be a com...

A 38 year old woman with a structurally normal heart presented with near syncope and had right ventricular outflow tract tachycardia. She was intolerant of antiarrhythmic medication and underwent low energy catheter ablation. Six non-arcing shocks of 25 J were delivered to the right ventricular outflow tract. No further ventricular tachycardia occurred during a follow up of seven months without...

The use of antiarrhythmic drugs to suppress ventricular arrhythmias in pediatric patients with a structurally or hemodynamically abnormal heart appears to improve long-term prognosis. The previously successful use of phenytoin to treat serious ventricular arrhythmias led to the investigation for an alternative antiarrhythmic agent, in the same antiarrhythmic drug class, for those patients who d...

STUDY METHOD The objective of this study was to evaluate the long term efficacy and safety of the atrial fibrillation program at Unity Point Health Methodist in Peoria. METHODS A retrospective analysis was performed on patients who had atrial fibrillation procedures at Unity Point Methodist from February 19 th 2010 to September 26 th 2014. Patients were enrolled and information obtained throu...

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is a substantial cause of mortality and morbidity in the Western world. It is a massive burden on health care systems, and its prevalence is expected to double over the next 20 years. Trials evaluating antiarrhythmic drugs or catheter ablation have focused on recurrence of arrhythmia, perhaps neglecting outcomes relevant to patients, such as symptoms, need for antiarrhy...

Tachycardia detection by implantable antitachycardia devices using rate alone has major limitations. Several alternative methods have been proposed to distinguish ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation from normal sinus rhythm using intracardiac electrograms. These methods have not been tested, however, for recognition of ventricular tachycardia in patients with abnormal surface QR...

BACKGROUND The mainstay of treatment for atrial fibrillation (AF) remains pharmacological; however, catheter ablation has increasingly been used over the last decade. The relative merits of each strategy have not been extensively studied. METHODS AND RESULTS We conducted a randomized multicenter comparison of these 2 treatment strategies in patients with paroxysmal AF resistant to at least 1 ...

Background—The mainstay of treatment for atrial fibrillation (AF) remains pharmacological; however, catheter ablation has increasingly been used over the last decade. The relative merits of each strategy have not been extensively studied. Methods and Results—We conducted a randomized multicenter comparison of these 2 treatment strategies in patients with paroxysmal AF resistant to at least 1 an...

Haı̈ssaguerre et al. have found that foci from pulmonary veins trigger the initiation of atrial fibrillation (AF), and subsequently, that isolating the pulmonary veins by catheter ablation reduced the recurrence of AF. The most recent European Society of Cardiology guidelines state that left atrial ablation should be considered (Class IIa recommendation) for symptomatic patients with either paro...