December 26, 1996New England Journal of Medicine
Unsustained Ventricular Tachycardia — To Treat or Not to Treat
Why the study?
Does implantable cardioverter-defibrillators prevent sudden death in patients with myocardial infarction, reduced left ventricular function, and asymptomatic unsustained ventricular tachycardia?
Population
Patients with myocardial infarction, reduced left ventricular function, and asymptomatic unsustained…
Comparison
Implantable cardioverter-defibrillators vs Antiarrhythmic-drug therapy
Design
Editorial
Authors
Discussion
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Member takes
Implication
Editorial on MADIT suggests ICD benefit in high-risk post-MI patients; leaves open generalizability amid evolving medical therapy.
Structured PICO
Does implantable cardioverter-defibrillators prevent sudden death in patients with myocardial infarction, reduced left ventricular function, and asymptomatic unsustained ventricular tachycardia?
P
Population
Patients with myocardial infarction, reduced left ventricular function, and asymptomatic unsustained ventricular tachycardia who had inducible sustained ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation that remained inducible after the intravenous administration of procainamide
I
Intervention
Implantable cardioverter-defibrillators
C
Comparator
Antiarrhythmic-drug therapy
Discusses the MADIT trial evaluating ICDs versus antiarrhythmic drugs in patients with prior MI, reduced LV function, and inducible VT/VF.
Cite This Study
Friedman et al. (1996) studied this question.