Long‐term Efficacy and Toxicity of High‐ and Low‐Dose Amiodarone Regimens

Amiodarone is an effective antiarrhythmic drug for the control of potentially lethal and lethal ventricular arrhythmias (VA). In the United States, a high‐dose regimen has been used at the expense of a high toxicity profile for the control of lethal VAs. Significant antiarrhythmic efficacy has also been established with low‐dose regimens, which carry a low rate of intolerable side effects (5.4%) when compared with the high‐dose regimen (16.7%). The high incidence of tolerable and intolerable adverse side effects is probably related to high amiodarone loading (31.92 g) and maintenance doses (520 mg/d). In contrast, the low‐dose regimen uses much lower loading (7.2 g) and maintenance (280 mg/d) doses.