Ventricular tachycardia: progress in acute and chronic patient care.

Patients with ventricular tachycardia (VT) typically have significant structural heart disease and therefore benefit from all advances made in the past 50 years in cardiovascular care. Once sinus rhythm is restored, subsequent treatment goals include detecting the primary causes of VT and treating acute recurrences, determining the extent of structural heart disease and assessing the need for treatment of heart failure and ischemia, and prescribing chronic antiarrhythmic therapy. Implantable-device therapy has revolutionized the treatment of patients with VT.