Objective: To evaluate the clinical effect of implanted cardioverter-defibrillators (ICD) for primary prevention of sudden cardiac death.
Methods: According to ACC/AHA Guideline of ICD implantation (2005), 35 patients successfully received ICD/CRT-D implantation for primary prevention of sudden cardiac death in our hospital from January 2006 to December 2009. All the patients were followed up for a mean of 2 years.
Results: During the follow up, 11 (31.43%) patients experienced ventricular arrhythmic episodes, for which 16 defibrillation therapies and 75 anti-tachycardia pacing (ATP) therapies were delivered without mistaken shock or death. The incidence rate of NVM was 100%, that of PVT was 66.67%, Brugada syndrome 50%, HCM 25% and DCM 16.67%. Of these episodes, the incidence of VF episodes among PVC patients was 87.5% (14 beats), ventricular tachycardia PVC was 82.28% (65 times), 5 beats in NVM patients, 4 beats in HCM and Brugada syndrome patients, and 1 beat in DCM patients. No ICD implantation-related complication was detected, and no ventricular tachycardia induced syncope occurred in these cases. All patients showed improved quality of life after the implantation.
Conclusion: ICD implantation can prevent malignant ventricular arrhythmia episodes, especially for PVT, NVM and Brugada syndrome in high risk SCD patients, demonstrating the value of implantation of ICD as a primary prevention in high-risk SCD patients.