Title: Can spinal cord stimulation reduce ventricular arrhythmias?
Abstract: Sudden cardiac death is the largest cause of natural death in Western countries. 1 Zipes D. Wellens H. Sudden cardiac death. Circulation. 1998; 98: 2334-2351 Crossref PubMed Scopus (1631) Google Scholar , 2 Myerburg R. Kessler K. Castellanos A. Sudden cardiac death: epidemiology, transient risk, and intervention assessment. Ann Intern Med. 1993; 15: 1187-1197 Crossref Scopus (462) Google Scholar Most sudden cardiac deaths are caused by malignant ventricular arrhythmias. The occurrence of sudden cardiac death 3 Barron H. Lesh M. Autonomic nervous system and sudden cardiac death. J Am Coll Cardiol. 1996; 27: 1053-1060 Abstract Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (229) Google Scholar and ventricular tachyarrhythmia (VT)/ventricular fibrillation (VF) episodes 4 Lombardi F. Makikallio T.H. Myerburg R.J. Huikuri H. Sudden cardiac death: role of heart rate variability to identify patients at risk. Cardiovasc Res. 2001; 50: 210-217 Crossref PubMed Scopus (103) Google Scholar , 5 Shusterman V. Aysin B. Gottipaty V. et al. Autonomic nervous system activity and the spontaneous initiation of ventricular tachycardia ESVEM Investigators. Electrophysiologic Study Versus Electrocardiographic Monitoring Trial. J Am Coll Cardiol. 1998; 32: 1891-1899 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (112) Google Scholar is associated with an imbalance between sympathetic and parasympathetic tone. Spinal cord stimulation (SCS) could restore autonomic balance by inhibiting sympathetic stimulation of the heart. Accumulating evidence demonstrates that SCS is a safe antianginal treatment that does not hide myocardial infarction symptoms. 6 DeJongste M.J. Spinal cord stimulation for ischemic heart disease. Neurol Res. 2000; 22: 293-298 PubMed Google Scholar Recently, it was shown that SCS modifies the capacity of intrinsic cardiac neurons to generate activity. 7 Foreman R.D. Linderoth B. Ardell J.L. et al. Modulation of intrinsic cardiac neurons by spinal cord stimulation: implications for its therapeutic use in angina pectoris. Cardiovasc Res. 2000; 47: 367-375 Crossref PubMed Scopus (151) Google Scholar SCS also acts to suppress the excitatory effects that local myocardial ischemia exerts on such neurons. 7 Foreman R.D. Linderoth B. Ardell J.L. et al. Modulation of intrinsic cardiac neurons by spinal cord stimulation: implications for its therapeutic use in angina pectoris. Cardiovasc Res. 2000; 47: 367-375 Crossref PubMed Scopus (151) Google Scholar Issa et al 8 Issa Z.F. Zhou X. Ujhelyi M.R. et al. Thoracic spinal cord stimulation reduces the risk of ischemic ventricular arrhythmias in a postinfarction heart failure canine model. Circulation. 2005; 11: 3217-3220 Crossref Scopus (131) Google Scholar showed in dogs that the occurrence of VT/VF is reduced from 59% to 23% when SCS was applied during transient myocardial ischemia. SCS also appeared to have an antiarrhythmic effect on spontaneous nonsustained VT and sustained VT during ischemia reperfusion in association with a reduction of repolarization alterations in a porcine ischemia-reperfusion model. 9 Odenstedt J. Linderoth B. Bergfeldt L. et al. Spinal cord stimulation effects on myocardial ischemia, infarct size, ventricular arrhythmia, and noninvasive electrophysiology in a porcine ischemia-reperfusion model. Heart Rhythm. 2011; 8: 892-898 Abstract Full Text Full Text PDF PubMed Scopus (52) Google Scholar In addition, long-term SCS significantly decreased ventricular arrhythmias and improved cardiac contractile function in canine heart failure. 10 Lopshire J. Zhou X. Dusa C. et al. Spinal cord stimulation improves ventricular function and reduces ventricular arrhythmias in a canine postinfarction heart failure model. Circulation. 2009; 28: 286-294 Crossref Scopus (119) Google Scholar
Publication Year: 2012
Publication Date: 2012-11-01
Language: en
Type: article
Indexed In: ['crossref', 'pubmed']
Access and Citation
Cited By Count: 49
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