Medical treatment of cardiac arrhythmias in Chagas'heart disease

There are no controlled clinical trials evaluating drug therapy in patients with ventricular arrhythmias and chronic chagasic cardiomyopathy. Empirical treatment with disopyramide (400-1,000mg/d), phenytoin (4-6mg/d), mexiletine (600-1,200mg/d), propafenone (900mg/d), amiodarone ( loading: 1,000mg/d...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: Angelo Amato V. de Paola, Fernando Antonio Aquino Gondin, Vanderlei Hara, Alayde Mendonça
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Associação Paulista de Medicina
Series:São Paulo Medical Journal
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.scielo.br/scielo.php?script=sci_arttext&pid=S1516-31801995000200018&lng=en&tlng=en
Description
Summary:There are no controlled clinical trials evaluating drug therapy in patients with ventricular arrhythmias and chronic chagasic cardiomyopathy. Empirical treatment with disopyramide (400-1,000mg/d), phenytoin (4-6mg/d), mexiletine (600-1,200mg/d), propafenone (900mg/d), amiodarone ( loading: 1,000mg/d, 10-14 days; maintenance 200-600mg/d), and sotalol (320mg/d) had efficacy and tolerance ranging from 18% to 90% with heterogeneous criteria for efficacy definition. Further studies with homogenous criteria are required to determine which is the most appropriate drug therapy for patients with chronic chagasic cardiomyopathy and ventricular arrhythmias.
ISSN:1806-9460