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Patients who survive ventricular fibrillation (VF) or symptomatic sustained ventricular tachycardia (VT) have a high risk for sudden death. The Antiarrhythmics versus Implantable Defibrillators (AVID) investigators sought to determine the relative efficacy of drug therapy versus defibrillators for survivors of life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias.
This multicenter study included 1,016 patients who were resuscitated from a near-fatal VF arrest or who had sustained VT with syncope or a left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) of 40 percent or less. Patients were randomized to receive either a state-of-the-art implantable cardioverter-defibrillator or contemporary antiarrhythmic drug therapy that usually included amiodarone. The mean age o…