Higher defibrillation threshold in methamphetamine cardiomyopathy patients with implantable...

Identification of patients with an increased risk of high defibrillation thresholds (DFTs) is important in planning implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) procedures. Clinical observations have suggested that patients with methamphetamine cardiomyopathy (MACMP) have significantly elevated defibrillation thresholds. We hypothesized that MACMP patients would have higher DFT thresholds than controls and would require procedural changes during ICD implantation to accommodate higher thresholds.

We identified consecutive patients with MACMP undergoing ICD implantation at the academic center from 2003 to 2007. We then compared DFTs against age-and sex-matched controls.

The MACMP (n = 10) group showed significantly increased DFT thresholds (23.7 ± 6.7 J) compared with age and sex-matched controls (14.5 ± 4.6 J, p < 0.005). Additionally, patients with MACMP had evidence of more severe congestive heart failure, with increased B-type natrieutic protein (BNP) levels (1173 ± 784 vs 260 ± 349, p = 0.02) and decreased left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) (17.8 ± 9.4 vs 35.9 ± 15.2, p = 0.02). MACMP patients required high output devices than controls (50% versus 0%, p = 0.03). Differences between groups remained significant despite adjusting for LVEF.

Planning for ICD implantation should take into consideration a history of methamphetamine abuse, mandating DFT testing and empiric consideration of high output devices for such patients.