SynthesisEuropace : European pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac electrophysiology : journal of the working groups on cardiac pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac cellular electrophysiology of the European Society of Cardiology2026
Early catheter ablation vs. antiarrhythmic drugs in treatment-naïve ischaemic ventricular tachyarrhythmias: a meta-analysis of randomized controlled trials.
Synthesis in Europace : European pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac electrophysiology : journal of the working groups on cardiac pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac cellular electrophysiology of the European Society of Cardiology, 2026. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
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The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- How early should we ablate ventricular tachycardia? From rescue to prevention in ischaemic VT.Europace : European pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac electrophysiology : journal of the working groups on cardiac pacing, arrhythmias, and cardiac cellular electrophysiology of the European Society of Cardiology · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
6 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
introductionAntiarrhythmic drugs (AADs) have traditionally been used as first-line therapy for ventricular tachycardia (VT) but are frequently associated with systemic toxicities and drug interactions. Therefore, we performed a meta-analysis comparing early catheter ablation (CA) with AAD therapy as initial treatment for VT in patients with prior myocardial infarction. METHODS AND
resultsPubMed, Embase, and the Cochrane Library were searched for randomized controlled trials comparing CA vs. AAD in patients naïve to both strategies. Meta-analysis was performed using Review Manager. Three randomized trials including 618 patients were analysed. No significant differences were observed in all-cause mortality, appropriate implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) therapies (including shocks and antitachycardia pacing), ventricular arrhythmia storm, hospitalizations, or adverse events between strategies. Leave-one-out sensitivity analysis identified one trial as the primary contributor to between-study heterogeneity.
conclusionEarly catheter ablation provides similar efficacy to first-line antiarrhythmic drug therapy for major arrhythmic and survival outcomes, with reductions in hospitalizations and treatment-related adverse events, although largely driven by one trial. These findings support consideration of CA as a first-line therapeutic strategy in selected patients with ischaemic VT.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.