From Duke Clinical Research Institute, Duke University, Durham, N.C. (G.D.S.); the Department of Health Research and Policy, School of Medicine (M.A.H.), and the Center for Primary Care and Outcomes Research, Department of Medicine (M.A.H., D.K.O.), Stanford University, Stanford, Calif.; and the Veterans Affairs Palo Alto Health Care System, Palo Alto, Calif. (D.K.O.). Address reprint requests ...

UNLABELLED Catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT) is an electrophysiological disorder of a physically normal heart that occurs in children when the body is subjected to intense emotional or physical stress that causes adrenergic discharge. This troubling disease can be sporadic (spontaneous) or familial (genetic/inherited). Unfortunately, its associated ventricular tachyca...

Our patient was an 85-year-old man who had experienced an out-of-hospital cardiac arrest in September 1990 and subsequently underwent the implantation of an automatic implantable cardioverter-defibrillator as part of the Cardiac Arrest in Seattle: Conventional versus Amiodarone Drug Evaluation (CASCADE) trial, as well as bypass surgery in Seattle, Wash. The defibrillator was placed abdominally....

Implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) have evolved from the treatment of last resort to the gold standard therapy for patients at high risk for ventricular tachyarrhythmias. High-risk patients include those who have survived life-threatening arrhythmias, and individuals with cardiac diseases who are at risk for such arrhythmias, but are symptomless. Use of an ICD will affect the patien...

All of the prospective multicenter trials that support the use of implantable defibrillators have used single chamber pacemakers/implantable cardiovertor defibrillators (ICDs). Despite the significantly increased cost of dual chamber pacemaker/ICD devices and the lack of outcome data, these devices accounted for approximately two-thirds of the ICDs implanted in the United States during the 12 m...

Objective To review the evidence base from randomised controlled trials of combined cardiac resynchronisation therapy and implantable cardioverter defibrillator therapy in left ventricular impairment and symptomatic heart