Catheter ablation of ventricular tachycardia in ischemic cardiomyopathy: Impact of concomitant amiodarone therapy on short- and long-term clinical outcomes

BACKGROUND Substrate catheter ablation of scar-related ventricular tachycardia (VT) is a widely accepted therapeutic option for patients with ischemic cardiomyopathy (ICM). OBJECTIVE The purpose of this study was to investigate whether concomitant amiodarone therapy affects procedural outcomes. METHODS A total of 134 consecutive patients (89% male; age 66 6 10 years) with ICM undergoing catheter ablation of VT were included in the study. Patients were sorted by amiodarone therapy before ablation. In all patients, a substrate-based catheter ablation (endocardial +/- epicardial) in sinus rhythm abolishing all abnormal electrograms within the scar was performed. The endpoint of the procedure was VT noninducibility. After the ablation procedure, all antiarrhythmic medications were discontinued. All patients had an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, and recurrences were analyzed through the device. RESULTS In 84 patients (63%), the ablation was performed on amiodarone; the remaining 50 patients (37%) were off amiodarone. Patients had comparable baseline characteristics. Mean scar size area was 143.6 +/- 44.9 cm(2) on amiodarone vs 139.2 +/- 36.8 cm(2) off amiodarone (P=.56). More radiofrequency time was necessary to achieve noninducibility in the off-amiodarone group compared to the on-amiodarone group (68.1 +/- 20.1 minutes vs 51.5 +/- 19.7 minutes; P<.001). In addition, due to persistent VT inducibility, more patients in the off-amiodarone group required epicardial ablation than in the on-amiodarone group (13/50 [26%] vs 5/84 [6%], respectively; P<.001). During mean follow-up of 23.9 +/- 11.6 months, recurrence of any ventricular arrhythmias off antiarrhythmic drugs was 44% (37/84) in the on-amiodarone group vs 22% (11/50) in the off-amiodarone group (P=.013). CONCLUSION Albeit, VT noninducibility after substrate catheter ablation for scar related VT was achieved faster, with less radiofrequency time and less need for epicardial ablation in patients taking amiodarone, these patients had significantly higher VT recurrence at long-term follow-up when this medication was discontinued.

Automated summary

The study found that patients taking amiodarone achieved VT noninducibility faster with less radiofrequency time and less need for epicardial ablation after substrate catheter ablation, but had significantly higher VT recurrence at long-term follow-up when this medication was discontinued.