Recurrent ventricular tachycardia in the absence of overt heart disease: clinical characteristics and response to drug therapy.

Eight patients, seven of them women, have been followed up for a mean of 8.1 years (range, three to 18) with the uncommon syndrome of recurrent frequent episodes of ventricular tachycardia in the absence of overt cardiac abnormality. The mean age at diagnosis was 25 years (range, 12 to 44). Serious symptoms were common: five patients had syncope, cardiac arrest, and/or cerebrovascular accidents. Multiple measures to characterize this population, including study of symptoms, response to exercise, degree of prematurity of ventricular ectopic depolarizations, and response to antiarrhythmic drugs, showed little uniformity. An individualized approach to therapy, taking into account age and symptoms as well as frequency of arrhythmia, was used. Excellent control of arrhythmia was eventually achieved in four patients, but only after multiple drug trials (mean 5.3, range two to eight trials per patient) had been ineffective. Prognosis in this syndrome is generally good, but serious complications occur frequently enough that vigorous therapy is justified in selected patients.