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(Circulation. 2005;111:2537-2549.)
© 2005 American Heart Association, Inc.

Controversies in Cardiovascular Medicine

Should everyone with an ejection fraction less than or equal to 30% receive an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator?

Not Everyone With an Ejection Fraction 30% Should Receive an ICD

Alfred E. Buxton, MD

From the Cardiology Division, Brown Medical School, Providence, RI (A.E.B.).

Correspondence to Alfred E. Buxton, MD, Professor of Medicine, Brown University Medical School, 2 Dudley St, Suite 360, Providence, RI 02905. E-mail Alfred_Buxton@Brown.edu

An extract of the first 250 words of the full text is provided, because this article has no abstract.

	Introduction

 
Although the total number of deaths attributed to cardiovascular disease has decreased during recent decades, an increase in the percentage of cardiac deaths occurring suddenly (from 56% in 1989 to 63% in 1998) has actually resulted in an increase in the total number of sudden deaths in the United States.¹ The problem of sudden death spans all racial and cultural groups and is equally important in men and women. It is now 40 years since continuous ECG monitoring revealed that ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation (VT/VF) are responsible for the majority of sudden deaths. Dissemination of this information resulted in a marked change in practice. Until the 1970s, physicians treated only symptomatic VTs. Therapeutic options were limited to a few antiarrhythmic drugs, administered empirically. With the advent of telemetric ECG monitoring and continuous ambulatory (Holter) ECG monitoring came the recognition that frequent and multiform ventricular ectopy often preceded episodes of VF in the acute phase of myocardial infarction (MI). Ventricular ectopy and nonsustained VT was documented 1 to 2 weeks after MI in many patients. The presence of frequent ventricular premature complexes and runs of nonsustained VT in patients with significant left ventricular dysfunction were then demonstrated to be an independent predictor of sudden cardiac death late after MI. This information then led to the practice of administering antiarrhythmic drugs to suppress ventricular ectopy under the presumption that suppression of asymptomatic ectopy would prevent sudden death. This fashion lasted almost 20 years, until the results of the Cardiac Arrhythmia Suppression . . . [Full Text of this Article]

Arthur J. Moss, MD

From the Cardiology Unit, Department of Medicine, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, New York (A.J.M.).

Correspondence to Arthur J. Moss, MD, Heart Research Follow-up Program, Box 653, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY 14642 (e-mail heartajm@heart.rochester.edu).

Alfred E. Buxton, MD

From the Cardiology Division, Brown Medical School, Providence, RI (A.E.B.).

Correspondence to Alfred E. Buxton, MD, Professor of Medicine, Brown University Medical School, 2 Dudley St, Suite 360, Providence, RI 02905. E-mail Alfred_Buxton@Brown.edu

Arthur J. Moss, MD

From the Cardiology Unit, Department of Medicine, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, New York (A.J.M.).

Correspondence to Arthur J. Moss, MD, Heart Research Follow-up Program, Box 653, University of Rochester Medical Center, Rochester, NY 14642 (e-mail heartajm@heart.rochester.edu).

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