Treatment of recurrent ventricular tachycardia and fibrillation with aprindine.

Twenty-three patients with recurrent ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation, or both, were treated with aprindine, a new antiarrhythmic agent. It was found that: (1) no patient had a recurrence of ventricular fibrillation after aprindine therapy was begun, except as a terminal event subsequent to the development of acute myocardial infarction and cardiogenic shock or refractory congestive heart failure; (2) 6 patients experienced ventricular tachycardia after the loading dose, but with continued aprindine therapy the ventricular tachycardia was suppressed in 3 of these 6 patients, and a fourth patient was asymptomatic during brief paroxysms of ventricular tachycardia; (3) in 2 patients, aprindine was ineffective and was discontinued; (4) electrical cardioversion was not required in any patient receiving aprindine; (5) premature ventricular extrasystoles were decreased in 18 of the 23 patients treated with aprindine; (6) aprindine was discontinued in 1 patient because of intolerable side effects, although ventricular arrhythmias were suppressed in this patient; and (7) 5 patients died from acute myocardial infarction or severe heart failure while receiving aprindine.