Verapamil in Ventricular Tachycardia

Abstract

We compared the effects of verapamil to high dose procainamide on the rate of inducible and spontaneously occurring ventricular tachycardia (VT) in 10 patients. Verapamil induced a significant increase in the rate of tachycardia (R-R interval decreased from 278 +/- 54 to 233 +/- 32 ms, mean +/- SD; p less than 0.025 by paired t test) while procainamide slowed the tachycardia (mean R-R interval was 328 +/- 72 ms, p less than 0.02). Verapamil prevented the induction of sustained VT and was effective as chronic oral antiarrhythmic therapy in 2 patients. The accelerated VT culminated in ventricular fibrillation in 1 patient. It is assumed that verapamil may have either increased conduction velocity or shortened the reentrant cycle. This may be related either to a primary effect of the drug or secondary to increased catecholamine stimulation due to a vasodilatory effect.