Efficacy of anti-tachycardia pacing (version 2.5).
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Efficacy of burst and ramp anti-tachycardia pacing on termination of ventricular tachycardia across gender and varying levels of left ventricular size, systolic dysfunction and coronary artery disease.
IRAS ID
182596
Contact name
Stuart Belringer
Contact email
Duration of Study in the UK
0 years, 7 months, days
Research summary
When arteries that supply the heart with blood and oxygen become blocked (aka coronary artery disease [CAD]) patients can often suffer a heart attack (aka myocardial infarction). This can damage the heart muscle (aka left ventricular systolic dysfunction) and often lead to dilatation of the heart (aka heart failure). Females have been shown to develop and respond differently in comparison with males in regard to heart disease. Due to scarring of the heart muscle, some patients are at an increased risk of developing dangerous fast electrical rhythms known as ventricular tachycardia (VT) and ventricular fibrillation. Implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICD) were developed to terminate these rhythms quickly and to prevent sudden cardiac death. An ICD is a small device that is implanted under the skin where one or more leads are tunnelled into the heart through a vein. The device can detect when a patient slips into these rhythms and can apply a large amount of electrical energy to reset this, called a ‘shock’. This is very successful, however it is also very painful if the patient is conscious. Anti-tachycardia pacing (ATP) is an alternative therapy to ‘shocks’ that can be used to treat VT only. This is because VT has a unique re-entry circuit that ATP is able to break. It uses a much smaller electrical energy, which patients often do not feel. ATP has been shown to be highly effective in terminating VT with a low failure rate and complications risk. What is less clear, is whether gender and varying levels of underlying heart disease such as CAD, left ventricular systolic dysfunction and left ventricular dilatation alters the effectiveness of this treatment.
REC name
East of Scotland Research Ethics Service REC 1
REC reference
15/ES/0195
Date of REC Opinion
17 Nov 2015
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion