In patients with idiopathic ventricular fibrillation, the 5-year recurrence rate of ventricular arrhythmias is approximately 31% while mortality remains low at 3.1%, and baseline electrophysiological studies do not predict future events.
BACKGROUND: The long-term outcome of the patients with idiopathic ventricular fibrillation (IVF) is not well known. METHODS AND RESULTS: Relevant studies published through May 21, 2014 were searched and identified in the MEDLINE, PsycINFO, Cochrane Library, CINAHL, and EMBASE databases and a hand search of article references was also performed. Random-effect models were used for pooling proportions of mortality and recurrent events. Twenty-three studies were included with a total of 639 patients (449 males) with a mean age ranging from 33 to 51 years. Eighty percent of patients had received ICD implantation. Over an average of 5.3 years follow-up, 167 patients (31%) experienced a recurrence of ventricular arrhythmic events (proportion, 0.29 95% CI 0.21-0.38). Moreover, 17 patients (3.1%) died among all studies (proportion, 0.01 95% CI 0.00-0.04). No association was found between the induction of sustained ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation at baseline electrophysiological study and risk of recurrent ventricular arrhythmias (risk difference: 0.12 95% CI, 0.08-0.32). CONCLUSIONS: In patients with IVF, this meta-analysis revealed an estimated recurrent event rate of 31% and a pooled mortality rate of 3.1% during an average of 5 years follow-up. The results of baseline electrophysiological studies are not predictive of future ventricular arrhythmias.
Özaydın et al. (Thu,) studied this question.
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