Ventricular Tachycardia Storm Presenting as Vague Complaints to the Emergency Department.

We present the case of a 75-year-old man with vague symptoms and hypotension found to be in electrical storm secondary to sustained ventricular tachycardia. The patient did not respond to intravenous amiodarone, magnesium, lidocaine, or four cardioversion attempts. This case illustrates the challenges in managing patients with electrical storm presenting to the emergency department.

Etripamil Nasal Spray for Rapid Conversion of Supraventricular Tachycardia to Sinus Rhythm.

BACKGROUND: There is no nonparenteral medication for the rapid termination of paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia. OBJECTIVES: The purpose of this study was to assess the efficacy and safety of etripamil nasal spray, a short-acting calcium-channel blocker, for the rapid termination of paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (SVT). METHODS: This phase 2 study was performed during electrophysiological testing in patients with previously documented SVT who were induced into SVT prior to undergoing a catheter ablation. Patients in sustained SVT for 5 min received either placebo or 1 of 4 doses of active compound. The primary endpoint was the SVT conversion rate within 15 min of study drug administration. Secondary endpoints included time to conversion and adverse events. RESULTS: One hundred four patients were dosed. Conversion rates from SVT to sinus rhythm were between 65% and 95% in the etripamil nasal spray groups and 35% in the placebo group; the differences were statistically significant (Pearson chi-square test) in the 3 highest active compound dose groups versus placebo. In patients who converted, the median time to conversion with etripamil was <3 min. Adverse events were mostly related to the intranasal route of administration or local irritation. Reductions in blood pressure occurred predominantly in the highest etripamil dose. CONCLUSIONS: Etripamil nasal spray rapidly terminated induced SVT with a high conversion rate. The safety and efficacy results of this study provide guidance for etripamil dose selection for future studies involving self-administration of this new intranasal calcium-channel blocker in a real-world setting for the termination of SVT. (Efficacy and Safety of Intranasal MSP-2017 [Etripamil] for the Conversion of PSVT to Sinus Rhythm [NODE-1]; NCT02296190).

Impact of implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, amiodarone, and placebo on the mode of death in stable patients with heart failure: analysis from the sudden cardiac death in heart failure trial.

BACKGROUND: The Sudden Cardiac Death in Heart Failure Trial (SCD-HeFT) demonstrated that implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) therapy reduces all-cause mortality in patients with New York Heart Association class II/III heart failure and a left ventricular ejection fraction < or =35% on optimal medical therapy. Whether ICD therapy reduced sudden death caused by ventricular tachyarrhythmias without affecting heart failure deaths in this population is unknown. METHODS AND RESULTS: SCD-HeFT randomized 2521 subjects to placebo, amiodarone, or shock-only, single-lead ICD therapy. Over a median follow-up of 45.5 months, a total of 666 deaths occurred, which were reviewed by an Events Committee and initially categorized as cardiac or noncardiac. Cardiac deaths were further adjudicated as resulting from sudden death presumed to be ventricular tachyarrhythmic, bradyarrhythmia, heart failure, or other cardiac causes. ICD therapy significantly reduced cardiac mortality compared with placebo (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.76; 95% confidence interval, 0.60 to 0.95) and tachyarrhythmia mortality (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.40; 95% confidence interval, 0.27 to 0.59) and had no impact on mortality resulting from heart failure or noncardiac causes. The cardiac and tachyarrhythmia mortality reductions were evident in subjects with New York Heart Association class II but not in subjects with class III heart failure. The reduction in tachyarrhythmia mortality with ICD therapy was similar in subjects with ischemic and nonischemic disease. Compared with placebo, amiodarone had no significant effect on any mode of death. CONCLUSIONS: ICD therapy reduced cardiac mortality and sudden death presumed to be ventricular tachyarrhythmic in SCD-HeFT and had no effect on heart failure mortality. Amiodarone had no effect on all-cause mortality or its cause-specific components, except an increase in non-cardiac mortality in class III patients. [corrected] CLINICAL TRIAL REGISTRATION INFORMATION: URL: http://www.clinicaltrials.gov. Unique identifier: NCT00000609.