EFFECT OF PROPRANOLOL VERSUS NO ANTIARRHYTHMIC DRUG ON SUDDEN CARDIAC DEATH, TOTAL CARDIAC DEATH, AND TOTAL DEATH IN PATIENTS GREATER-THAN-OR-EQUAL-TO-62-PERCENT YEARS OF AGE WITH HEART-DISEASE, COMPLEX VENTRICULAR ARRHYTHMIAS, AND LEFT-VENTRICULAR EJECTION FRACTION GREATER-THAN-OR-EQUAL-TO-40-PERCENT

Patients with complex ventricular arrhythmias associated with heart disease are at increased risk for new cardiac events.1-5 However, there are no hard data from prospective, randomized, double-blind clinical trials documenting that abolition or reduction of ventricular tachycardia (VT) or complex ventricular arrhythmias by antiarrhythmic drugs will decrease cardiac events or mortality.6 Beta blockers reduce ventricular arrhythmias in postinfarction patients.7 In the Beta-Blocker Heart Attack Trial, propranolol reduced sudden death by 28% in the subgroup of patients with complex ventricular arrhythmias and 16% in the subgroup of patients without ventricular arrhythmias.8 In the present report, we present the results from a prospective, randomized study correlating the effect of propranolol versus no antiarrhythmic drug on the incidences of sudden cardiac death, total cardiac death, and total death in 245 patients aged ≥62 years with heart disease, complex ventricular arrhythmias and no sustained VT detected by 24-hour ambulatory electrocardiography, and a left ventricular (LV) ejection fraction ≥40. © 1994.