Amiodarone in the new AHA guidelines for ventricular tachyarrhythmias.

OBJECTIVE

To delineate amiodarone's role in the new American Heart Association guidelines for ventricular tachyarrhythmias, review the literature that supports the use of amiodarone in ventricular tachyarrhythmias, describe the pharmaceutical properties of amiodarone and elucidate their clinical implications, and discuss the dosing, preparation, and administration of amiodarone.

DATA SOURCES

A search of MEDLINE (1966-October 2000) database and EMBASE Drugs and Pharmacology database (1980-October 2000) was performed. References from published articles and tertiary references were used to gather additional data.

DATA EXTRACTION

All articles were screened, and pertinent studies were identified and evaluated.

DATA SYNTHESIS

Recent trials have demonstrated amiodarone's usefulness in the setting of ventricular tachyarrhythmias. Based on these investigations and contrary to past guidelines, amiodarone is included in the 2000 advanced cardiovascular life support guidelines as a possible agent for hemodynamically stable monomorphic ventricular tachycardia (VT), non-QT prolonged polymorphic VT, and ventricular fibrillation (VF)/pulseless VT. Although not specifically evaluated in the setting of hemodynamically stable monomorphic VT and non-QT prolonged polymorphic VT, investigations by the intravenous Amiodarone Multicenter Trial Group and other clinical trials make amiodarone an acceptable choice for these arrythmia categories. The results of the ARREST (Resuscitation of Refractory Sustained Ventricular Tachyarrhythmias) trial prove amiodarone to be the antiarrhythmic of choice for VF/pulseless VT.

CONCLUSIONS

Amiodarone is classified as a IIb therapeutic intervention for all three arrhythmia categories, which makes it an acceptable, safe, and useful agent with fair to good evidence to support its use. In addition, amiodarone requires careful preparation and delivery to achieve safe and effective outcomes.