Epidemiology of Symptomatic Arrhythmias

February 17, 2016 updated by: National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)
To acquire a better understanding of the spontaneous clinical behavior of paroxysmal tachycardia by studying epidemiologic features of symptomatic tachycardia patients.

Study Overview

Status

Completed

Conditions

Detailed Description

BACKGROUND:

Paroxysmal arrhythmias are a group of disorders in which sudden abnormalities of the cardiac rhythm occur without warning. Despite the abundant information available from studies on the mechanisms of tachycardias, there was hardly a shred of objective data in 1989 to establish how the occurrence of symptomatic tachycardias was influenced by various mechanisms. In fact, there were very few objective data describing the occurrence of symptomatic tachycardia among the patients who were afflicted with various paroxysmal tachycardias. For example, were patients in normal sinus rhythm likely to remain free of their tachycardia for one day, one week, one month, or longer? The suddenness and apparent unpredictability of attacks of paroxysmal tachycardias have been substantial obstacles to quantitative description of their occurrence. These studies used careful documentation of spontaneous tachycardia to establish the epidemiology of symptomatic arrhythmias.

DESIGN NARRATIVE:

Baseline electrophysiologic methods, including intracardiac recording and programmed electrical stimulation, were used to determine the mechanism of paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia. All patients had antiarrhythmic medications stopped. In most cases, the diagnosis of atrial fibrillation was established by scalar electrocardiographic criteria. At the time of entry into follow-up each patient was given a cardiobeeper and instructed to record and transmit any symptomatic arrhythmia when it occured. Descriptive information about each patient was entered into a baseline data file which included information on the time interval between attacks, age, sex, mechanism of arrhythmia, types of associated heart diseases, ECG data during sinus rhythm, and date and time of call. The purpose of the outpatient follow-up was to obtain objective documentation of spontaneously occurring, symptomatic tachycardia for quantitative analyses. Holter monitoring was used in patients with paroxysmal tachycardias to establish that asymptomatic tachycardia did not occur so often that it constituted an important, unrecognized feature of these clinical conditions.

Ten consecutively referred patients with paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia and ten consecutively referred patients with atrial fibrillation underwent untreated surveillance with telephone/ cardiobeeper monitoring for symptomatic arrhythmias and had four 24-hour ambulatory ECGs recorded at weekly intervals to detect symptomatic and asymptomatic arrhythmias. The Cox proportional hazards model was used to test the hypothesis that the mechanism of tachycardia was the most important predictor of the tachycardia-free period during an untreated observation period.

The study completion date listed in this record was obtained from the "End Date" entered in the Protocol Registration and Results System (PRS) record.

Study Type

Observational

Participation Criteria

Researchers look for people who fit a certain description, called eligibility criteria. Some examples of these criteria are a person's general health condition or prior treatments.

Eligibility Criteria

Ages Eligible for Study

No older than 100 years (Child, Adult, Older Adult)

Accepts Healthy Volunteers

No

Genders Eligible for Study

Male

Description

No eligibility criteria

Study Plan

This section provides details of the study plan, including how the study is designed and what the study is measuring.

How is the study designed?

Collaborators and Investigators

This is where you will find people and organizations involved with this study.

Sponsor

National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (NHLBI)

Publications and helpful links

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General Publications

Study record dates

These dates track the progress of study record and summary results submissions to ClinicalTrials.gov. Study records and reported results are reviewed by the National Library of Medicine (NLM) to make sure they meet specific quality control standards before being posted on the public website.

Study Major Dates

Study Start

December 1, 1988

Study Completion (Actual)

November 1, 1993

Study Registration Dates

First Submitted

May 25, 2000

First Submitted That Met QC Criteria

May 25, 2000

First Posted (Estimate)

May 26, 2000

Study Record Updates

Last Update Posted (Estimate)

February 18, 2016

Last Update Submitted That Met QC Criteria

February 17, 2016

Last Verified

May 1, 2000

More Information

Terms related to this study

Additional Relevant MeSH Terms

Other Study ID Numbers

  • 1118
  • R01HL040392 (U.S. NIH Grant/Contract)

This information was retrieved directly from the website clinicaltrials.gov without any changes. If you have any requests to change, remove or update your study details, please contact register@clinicaltrials.gov. As soon as a change is implemented on clinicaltrials.gov, this will be updated automatically on our website as well.

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