Arrhythmogenic effects of illicit drugs in athletes.

Cardiac arrhythmias are among the most important causes of non-eligibility to sports activities, and may be due to different causes (cardiomyopathies, myocarditis, coronary abnormalities, valvular diseases, primary electrical disorders, abuse of illicit drugs). The list of illicit drugs banned by the International Olympic Committee and yearly updated by the World Anti-Doping Agency includes the following classes: stimulants, narcotics, anabolic agents (androgenic steroids and others such as beta-2 stimulants), peptide hormones, mimetics and analogues, diuretics, agents with an antiestrogenic activity, masking agents. Almost all illicit drugs may cause, through a direct or indirect arrhythmogenic effect, in the short, medium or long term, a wide range of cardiac arrhythmias (focal or reentry type, supraventricular and/or ventricular), lethal or not, even in healthy subjects with no previous history of cardiac diseases.

Prospective assessment of late conduction recurrence across radiofrequency lesions producing electrical disconnection at the pulmonary vein ostium in patients with atrial fibrillation.

Background: In patients with atrial fibrillation (AF) undergoing radiofrequency (RF) electrical disconnection of multiple pulmonary veins (PVs), the incidence of late conduction recurrences has not been systematically determined.

Methods And Results: Using a prospectively designed, multistep approach, we aimed at assessing the correlation between acute achievement and chronic maintenance of electrical conduction block across RF lesions disconnecting the distal tract of the PV in 43 patients (52.3+/-8.

Role of implantable cardioverter defibrillators in dilated cardiomyopathy.

Idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) accounts for about 10,000 deaths per year in western countries. Of these deaths, 8% to 51% occur suddenly, with more than half of the events due to a ventricular arrhythmia. Improvement in diagnostic techniques and therapeutic strategies, together with changes in secular trends, have likely contributed to the reported trend toward improved survival in recent years.