New method for the assessment of drug-induced arrhythmia aggravation

Abstract That antiarrhythmic drugs may aggravate or induce arrhythmias is a common clinical observation and has also been documented by several investigations. 1–3 Efforts to establish a definition of proarrhythmic drug effect by means of quantitative registration of arrhythmias have not been conclusive and, so far, proarrhythmia has been defined arbitrarily. 4,5 The aim of the present study was to develop a statistical model enabling us to differentiate an antiarrhythmic-induced increase of arrhythmias from spontaneous arrhythmic variations.