Electropharmacologic testing in sustained ventricular tachycardia associated with coronary heart disease: value of the response to intravenous procainamide in predicting the response to oral procainamide and oral quinidine treatment.

Twenty patients with inducible, sustained ventricular tachycardia (VT) were prospectively evaluated to determine whether the response to intravenous procainamide administration, as assessed by programmed ventricular stimulation, predicted the response to oral procainamide and oral quinidine treatment. Six patients (30%) responded to intravenous procainamide (fewer than 10 beats of inducible VT). Ten of 20 patients (50%) responded to oral quinidine and 5 (25%) responded to oral procainamide. Mean drug serum levels were 11.3 +/- 2.1 micrograms/ml for intravenous procainamide, 5.4 +/- 0.8 micrograms/ml for oral quinidine and 11.7 +/- 3.4 micrograms/ml for oral procainamide. There was no significant difference in serum levels between those who responded and those who did not. Fifteen patients (75%) had a concordant drug response for intravenous and oral procainamide. Ten patients (50%) had a concordant response for intravenous procainamide and oral quinidine. Fifteen patients (75%) had a concordant drug response for oral procainamide and oral quinidine. Thus, in patients with sustained VT, the response to intravenous procainamide does not reliably predict the response to oral quinidine or oral procainamide, and serial day drug testing with these agents is necessary. Furthermore, high-dose quinidine therapy may be more effective in controlling VT in these patients than procainamide.