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Abstract
Twenty-six patients with clinically significant ventricular arrhythmias were randomly
assigned to treatment with either intravenous disopyramide or lidocaine; crossover
to the other agent was permitted in nine cases of primary drug failure. In addition,
disopyramide was administered nonrandomly to seven patients with ventricular arrhythmias
not controlled by lidocaine in standard doses. Arrhythmia control (greater than 50
percent reduction of premature ventricular complexes) was achieved in all 22 trials
with disopyramide and in 9 of 13 trails with lidocaine in the random study, whereas
clinical efficacy (arrhythmia control with absence of side effects) occurred respectively
in 15 of 22, and 8 of 13 trials. In all 11 patients (7 nonrandom, 4 random) whose
arrhythmia was not controlled with lidocaine the arrhythmia was controlled with disopyramide.
Thus, the clinical efficacy of intravenous disopyramide ran parallel to that of lidocaine
in patients with ventricular arrhythmias. Furthermore, intravenous disopyramide was
an effective alternative agent for patients with arrhythmia not controlled by lidocaine.