Catheter ablation serves as an important adjunctive therapy to treat or prevent repetitive ICD therapies in patients with structural heart disease and ventricular tachycardia.
Catheter ablation serves as an important adjunctive therapy to ICDs for VT in structural heart disease, and may be considered as primary therapy in select patients with tachycardiomyopathy to improve left ventricular function.
In contrast to ventricular tachycardia (VT) that occurs in the setting of a structurally normal heart, VT that occurs in patients with structural heart disease carries an elevated risk for sudden cardiac death (SCD), and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs) are the mainstay of therapy. In these individuals, catheter ablation may be used as adjunctive therapy to treat or prevent repetitive ICD therapies when antiarrhythmic drugs are ineffective or not desired. However, certain patients with frequent premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) or VT and tachycardiomyopathy should be considered for ablation before ICD implantation because left ventricular function may improve, consequently decreasing the risk of SCD and obviating the need for an ICD. The goal of this paper is to review the pathophysiology, mechanism, and management of VT in the setting of structural heart disease and discuss the evolving role of catheter ablation in decreasing ventricular arrhythmia recurrence.
Dukkipati et al. (Fri,) conducted a review in Ventricular tachycardia in structural heart disease. Catheter ablation was evaluated. Catheter ablation serves as an important adjunctive therapy to treat or prevent repetitive ICD therapies in patients with structural heart disease and ventricular tachycardia.