Optimal Therapy for ICD Patients

A new clinical study compared different pharmacologic therapies in patients with implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs), and recommended that those patients use amiodarone plus a beta blocker.

The study, dubbed OPTIC (Optimal Pharmacological Therapy in Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator Patients), was sponsored by St. Jude Medical (St. Paul, MN, USA) and shows that patients with an ICD reduced their chances of receiving any shock to 10.3% per year when taking the drug amiodarone combined with a beta blocker. This was in contrast to a chance of 24.3% for patients on the drug sotalol alone, and 38.5% for patients on a beta blocker alone. In addition, the amiodarone and beta blocker medical regimen reduced the chance of a patient having an inappropriate shock to only 3.3% per year.

The researchers concluded that amiodarone plus a beta blocker significantly reduced appropriate, inappropriate, and total number of shocks by suppressing ventricular tachycardia, sinus tachycardia and supraventricular arrhythmias. The results were published in the January 11, 2006, edition of The Journal of the American Medical Association.

"What the OPTIC Study makes clear is that, despite the ability of ICDs with advanced dual-chamber discrimination algorithms to reduce the occurrence of inappropriate therapies, the use of antiarrhythmic drugs can significantly reduce ICD shocks,” said Stuart J. Connolly, M.D., principal investigator of the OPTIC study and director of cardiology at McMaster University in Hamilton (Ontario, Canada).





Related Links:
St. Jude Medical
McMaster University