Efficacy of amiodarone during long-term treatment of potentially dangerous ventricular arrhythmias in patients with chronic stable ischemic heart disease.

Amiodarone was administered orally to 30 patients with chronic stable coronary artery disease and severe ventricular arrhythmias. Control studies revealed frequent (more than 30/hr) ventricular premature beats (VPBs) (27 patients), bigeminy (21 patients), couples (29 patients), R-on-T phenomenon (14 patients), ventricular tachycardia (16 patients), and ventricular fibrillation (1 patient). Two 24-hour Holter recordings and stress tests were performed before treatment, and an average of 3.6 per patient were done during treatment. Amiodarone caused suppression of all ventricular arrhythmias in 13 (43%) of the 30 patients and suppression of all complex forms and greater than 90% reduction of VPB number in 14 patients (47%) during a follow-up of 12.4 months. The mean dose was 590 mg/day in the 27 responders and 300 mg/day in the three nonresponders. A similar antiarrhythmic response was observed during stress testing. One of the 30 patients died due to massive pulmonary embolism and no arrhythmias were detected. In addition, amiodarone suppressed the occurrence of anginal pain and effort-induced ST changes in 9 of 10 patients and in 11 of 13 patients, respectively. The rate-pressure product and peak heart rate were significantly reduced in all patients. Our results suggest that amiodarone may be ideally suited for treatment of ventricular arrhythmias and for possible prevention of sudden death in patients with ischemic heart disease.