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Review
. 2021 Apr 3:34:100760.
doi: 10.1016/j.ijcha.2021.100760. eCollection 2021 Jun.

Expert consensus on acute management of ventricular arrhythmias - VT network Austria

M Martinek  1   2 , M Manninger  3 , R Schönbauer  4 , D Scherr  3 , C Schukro  4 , H Pürerfellner  1 , A Petzl  2 , B Strohmer  5 , M Derndorfer  1 , E Bisping  3 , M Stühlinger  6 , L Fiedler  7
Affiliations
Review

Expert consensus on acute management of ventricular arrhythmias - VT network Austria

M Martinek et al. Int J Cardiol Heart Vasc. .

Abstract

The Arrhythmia Working Group of the Austrian Society of Cardiology (ÖKG) has set the goal of systematically structuring and organizing the acute care of patients with ventricular arrhythmias (VA), i.e. ventricular tachycardia (VT) or ventricular fibrillation (VF) in Austria. Within a consensus paper, national recommendations on the basic diagnostic work-up of VA (12-lead ECG, medical history, family history, laboratory analyses, echocardiography, search for reversible causes, ICD interrogation), as well as further medical treatment and therapeutic measures (indication of coronary angiography, ablation therapy) are established. Since acute ablation of VT is indicated in the current ESC guidelines as a class IB indication for scar-associated incessant VT or electrical storm (ES; ≥ 3 ICD therapies in 24 h) as well as for ischemic cardiomyopathy (iCMP) with recurrent ICD shocks, organizational measures must be taken to ensure that these guidelines can be implemented. Therefore, a VT network will be established covering all areas in Austria, consisting of primary and secondary VT centers. Organizational aspects of an acute VT network are defined and should subsequently be implemented by the participating hospitals. All electrophysiologic centers in Austria that deal with VT ablation are to be integrated into the network in the medium-term. Centers that co-operate in the network are divided into primary and secondary VT centers according to predefined criteria.

Keywords: Consensus; Hospital network; Management; Ventricular arrhythmia.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declared that there is no conflict of interest.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
Initial Approach and acute diagnostics in case of ventricular tachycardia and electrical storm. ACLS = advanced cardiac live support, IABP = intra-aortic balloon pump, LVAD = left ventricular assist device, ECMO = extracorporeal membrane oxygenation.
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Specific antiarrhythmic therapy. Especially in structural heart disease antiarrhythmic therapy should be combined with betablockers as baseline drug therapy. PVC = premature electrical contraction, CPVT = catecholaminergic ventricular tachycardia.
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
VT Network Austria. Collaborating VT centers as of October 2020. Blue arrows: Primary (elective) VT centers. Red arrows: Secondary (acute) VT centers. (For interpretation of the references to colour in this figure legend, the reader is referred to the web version of this article.)
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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