13th International Congress
THE "NEW FRONTIERS"
OF ARRHYTHMIAS 1998

January 24-31, 1998
Marilleva, Trento, Italy

RT-48

Specificity of T-wave alternans in individuals without organic heart disease who are not inducible during ventricular programmed stimulation

Hans D. Esperer, Antonis A. Armoundas, David S. Rosenbaum*, Helmut U. Klein**, Richard J. Cohen.
Harvard University, MIT Division of Health Sciences and Technology, Cambridge, *Case Western Reserve University, Cleveland, USA, **University Hospital, Division of Cardiology, Otto-von-Guericke University, Magdeburg, Germany

Introduction

Recently, a highly significant relationship between microvolt TWA during atrial pacing and the inducibility of sustained ventricular tachycardia (VT) and ventricular fibrillation (VF) has been demonstrated^1-3. Patients with TWA had a 9-fold greater risk for arrhythmic events than those in whom TWA was not inducible. Of note, TWA and EPS were significantly and essentially equivalent predictors of arrhythmia-free survival¹. Thus, in patients suffering from coronary artery disease, cardiomyopathy or mitral valve prolapse, TWA might be useful as an efficient means of risk stratification for sudden cardiac death. However, little is known regarding the specificity of TWA. Therefore, we studied the specificity of TWA in patients without structural heart disease.