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Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillators in Patients with Chagas' Disease: Are They Different from Patients with Coronary Disease?
Author(s) -
MURATORE CLAUDIO,
RABINOVICH RAFAEL,
IGLESIAS RICARDO,
GONZÁLEZ MIGUEL,
DARÚ VICTOR,
LIPRANDI ALVARO SOSA
Publication year - 1997
Publication title -
pacing and clinical electrophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.686
H-Index - 101
eISSN - 1540-8159
pISSN - 0147-8389
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-8159.1997.tb04841.x
Subject(s) - medicine , cardiology , ventricular fibrillation , coronary artery disease , implantable cardioverter defibrillator , defibrillation , ejection fraction , chagas disease , ventricular tachycardia , defibrillation threshold , sudden cardiac death , cardiomyopathy , myocarditis , heart failure , immunology
Chagas' disease is a parasitic affliction, endemic to certain regions of South America, which may lead to a chronic dilated nonischemic cardiomyopathy. Ten Chagasic patients were compared to 18 coronary patients undergoing transvenous ICD implantation for ventricular tachycardia (VT), ventricular fibrillation (VF), or aborted cardiac arrest. Indications for ICD implantation were either drug intolerance or refractoriness, or no inducible tachyarrhythmia at EPS. There were no statistically significant differences between the Chagas and coronary artery disease groups with respect to age (60.2 vs 62.6 yrs], NYHA Class II (50% vs 62%), ejection fraction (31.1% vs 29.7%), and incidence of cardiac arrest (20% vs 33%), respectively. The following ICD implant and long‐term follow‐up variables were compared between the two groups: pacing threshold (0.94 V vs 0.95V), defibrillation threshold (19.5 J vs 19.6 J), number of VT episodes (414 vs 435), number of spontaneous VT terminations (86 vs 187), percent efficacy of antitachycardia pacing (93.9% vs 92.1 %), and total number of shocks (112 vs 145). These differences were not statistically significant. We conclude that patients with Chagas’ disease, compared with coronary artery disease patients, have similar clinical characteristics leading to ICD implantation. Furthermore, no differences were found with respect to ICD and long‐term follow‐up characteristics between the two groups.