Circulation: Arrhythmia And Electrophysiology On The Beat

Dr. Paul Wong:                  Welcome to the monthly podcast, On The Beat, for Circulation: Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology. I'm Dr. Paul Wong, editor in chief, with some of the key highlights from this month's issue. We'll also hear from Dr. Suraj Kapa, reporting on new research from the latest journal articles in the field. In our first article, Ratika Parkash and associates examined whether the outcomes following escalated antiarrhythmic drug therapy, or catheter ablation, depended on whether ventricular tachycardia with amiodarone refractory or sotalol refractory in patients with prior myocardial infarction in the VANISH study. At baseline, 169, or 65%, were amiodarone refractory, while the remaining were sotalol refractory. Amiodarone refractory patients had more renal insufficiency; 23.7% versus 10%. Worse, new ARC Heart Association class, 82.3% versus 65.5% class II or III; and lower ejection fraction, 29% versus 35%. Within the amiodarone refractory group, ablation resulted in a reduction of any ve