MORTALITY TRIALS WITH IMPLANTABLE DEFIBRILLATORS

The continuing disappointing results from recent major studies with an tiarrhythmic drugs combined with the continuing excellent outcomes wit h implantable cardioverter-defibrillators is making it exceedingly dif ficult, ethically, to conduct future randomized trials comparing the 2 treatment options. On the other hand, the high quality of stored Holt er electrograms and the therapy history retrievable from current impla ntable cardioverter-defibrillators creates opportunities for needed tr ials on drug efficacy without this ethical dilemma.