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We studied a group of 33 pts (age 15-60 yrs, mean age
27 yrs, 22 males and 11 females) having "idiopathic" ventricular arrhythmia (VA)
and supposed the absence of any obvious cardiac or pulmonary disease after examination
which have included ECG, chest X-ray, Holter monitoring, exercise stress testing,
echocardiography. Spin-echo and cine-MRI (magnetic resonance imaging), radionuclide
ventriculography (RVG) and cineangiography (CAG) were performed in the next step of
examination. These methods were able to recognize the minor form of ARVC. The diagnostic
conclusion was based on the presence of two or more signs of the structural and dynamic
right ventricle abnormalities: 1) increase of RV diameter with hypo/akinesis of RV wall;
2) regional thinning of RV wall; 3) aneurysmal dilatations and sacculations; 4) dilatation
of RV outflow tract4-7. The endomyocardial biopsies
were performed in two cases. So, patients were retrospectively separated into two groups
according to the results of the clinical and instrumental examination: 1) the group with
ARVC (n = 12); 2) the group with idiopathic ventricular arrhythmias (IVA) (n = 21).
Medical treatment included the trials of antiarrhythmic drugs (AAD) of I class
(propafenon 450-900 mg/day, ethmosine 600 mg/day), beta-blocker (atenolol 100 mg/day), IV
class (verapamil 240 mg/day) and an angiotensin-converting enzyme inhibitor (capoten 75
mg/day). The criteria for AAD effectiveness were the following: 70% reduction of the total
number of premature ventricular beats (PVBs), 90% reduction of the number of ventricular
couplets and 100% reduction of the number of episodes of ventricular tachycardia (VT).
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