Determinants of survival in patients with malignant ventricular arrhythmia associated with coronary artery disease.

The long-term survival data in patients with coronary artery disease and a history of malignant ventricular arrhythmia, defined as noninfarction ventricular fibrillation (VF) or hemodynamically compromising ventricular tachycardia (VT) followed for up to 9 years, were analyzed. In this group of 161 patients there was a total of 57 deaths, of which 35 (63%) were sudden. Life-table analysis demonstrated a 10% sudden death rate for all patients in the first year and a 7% annual rate in the subsequent 4 years. In patients managed noninvasively, the overall mortality rate was 27% over 9 years, or 3% per year. Suppression of ventricular tachycardia on both ambulatory monitoring and exercise testing was associated with improved survival. In patients evaluated by electrophysiologic testing the sudden death rate was 1.4% per year over an average of 5 years. This survival rate was not different compared with the noninvasive group (p = 0.09). Measures of left ventricular dysfunction and the frequency of ventricular arrhythmia before and after drug therapy were associated with a risk of sudden cardiac death by univariate analysis. Multivariate regression analysis identified 4 variables as independent predictors of sudden cardiac death: rales (p = 0.009), the number of runs of VT during exercise testing while receiving antiarrhythmic drug therapy (p = 0.0003), a history of congestive heart failure (p = 0.0009) and the number of premature beats on Holter monitoring (p = 0.01). These findings support the concept that suppression of repetitive arrhythmia on Holter monitor and exercise testing is a marker for improved survival among patients with malignant ventricular arrhythmia.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)