Evaluation of lorcainide in patients with symptomatic ventricular tachycardia.

One hundred patients with inducible ventricular tachycardia (VT) on electrophysiologic studies underwent serial drug testing with procainamide, lidocaine and lorcainide to determine comparative efficacy. Acute intravenous administration was followed by repeat programmed electrical stimulation (PES) studies on separate days for each antiarrhythmic agent. Lorcainide prevented VT induction in 69% of the 100 patients studied, procainamide in 50% of the 75 patients studied and lidocaine in 30% of 53 patients. After PES and serial drug testing, 46 patients were started on lorcainide, 9 on procainamide and 45 on other antiarrhythmic drug regimens. Eighty percent of the patients have remained on lorcainide therapy, whereas 47% have continued on other drug therapies started over 17.5-month mean follow-up period. Despite sleep-wake disturbances and a need for sedation at night, lorcainide therapy was well tolerated in this population and remained an effective antiarrhythmic agent with prolonged administration.