Ventricular arrhythmias in heart failure

Heart failure is an increasingly common disorder leading to reduced quality and expectancy of life. Asymptomatic and symptomatic ventricular arrhythmias are a frequent complication and have been found to be independent prognostic predictors for sudden cardiac death in patients with heart failure. Unfortunately, the positive predictive failure for this finding is low, but in patients with sustained ventricular arrhythmias, variables indicating impaired pump function are the most important predictors of sudden and of nonsudden cardiac death. Arrhythmias in heart failure may have many different underlying mechanisms. Indications for, and mode of treatment of, arrhythmias in heart failure depend on the symptoms and prognostic significance of the arrhythmia. Primarily, pump function should be optimized and antiarrhythmic drug therapy instituted only when the arrhythmia persists. In poorly tolerated and life-threatening arrhythmias, implantable devices allowing pacing and defibrillation must be considered. No data are presently available indicating a protective role of antiarrhythmic drugs in the prevention of sudden cardiac death in heart failure. Future directions should concentrate on the development of better stratification of risk for sudden death, better delineation of mechanisms of arrhythmias in heart failure (allowing the development of mechanism-specific antiarrhythmic drugs), and research into new nonpharmacologic techniques such as cardiomyoplasty and molecular biologic techniques to rebuild the failing heart muscles.