Effects of sotalol on high amplification of EGG.

D,l sotalol is an antiarrhythmic widely used for treating ventricular excit ability, especially ventricular tachycardia (VT). The means of assessing it s efficacy is 24 hour Holter monitoring and programmed ventricular stimulat ion. High amplification ECG has also been proposed for predicting the effec ts of the drug on the induction of VT. The aim of this study was to assess the results of high amplification ECG b efore and after taking sotalol and to compare them with those of programmed ventricular stimulation. This study was performed in 24 patients with spon taneous and inductible ventricular tachycardia due to ischaemic heart disea se. The two investigations were performed under basal conditions and after treatment with 160 to 320 mg/day of d,l-sotalol for 8 days. Nine patients h ad VT which could not be induced after treatment. In the other 15 cases, th e VT remained inducible and was not significantly slowed. Analysis of different parameters of high amplification ECG, the QRS duratio n, RMS 40 and LAS did not show any difference after treatment in cases with inducible VT or VT suppressed by treatment. In conclusion, d,l sotalol, even at antiarrhythmic doses, does not seem to change the parameters of high amplification ECG, and it is therefore not ne cessary to stop treatment to carry out this investigation. Moreover, it was impossible to predict the effect of d,l sotalol on VT by high amplificatio n ECG.