The Evaluation of Ventricular Arrhythmias Before and After Successful PTCA

To evaluate the effect of successful percutaneous transluminal coronary angioplasty (PTCA) on ventricular arrhythmias, ambulatory 24-hour holter recordings were taken 1 to 15 days before PTCA, soon after and 15 days after the procedure. These three groups of recordings were compared to each other with respect to the number of single ventricular premature beats (VPBs) and total VPBs, and the number of patients having couplet VPBs, bigeminytrigeminy, idioventricular rhythm and ventricular tachycardia. The mean value of single VPBs detected was 202±512 before PTCA, 317±730 soon after and 285±760 15 days after PTCA (p:ns), the mean value of total VPBs was 244±571 before PTCA, 344;t794 soon after and 303±832 15 days after PTCA (p:ns). There were also no significant difference between these 3 groups of recordings with respect to the number of patients with total VPBs, couplet VPBs, bigeminy-trigeminy, idioventricular rhythm and ventricular tachycardia. Although it was not statistically significant, the mean values of single and total VPBs were increased after PTCA. The rise in this values were more striking soon after PTCA. In conclusion, PTCA does not affect ventricular arrhythmias significantly.