Pilot Randomized Trial With Flecainide in ARVC Patients

Summary

Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy (ARVC) is an inherited arrhythmia disorder with high risk of ventricular tachycardia or fibrillation, and implantable cardioverter defibrillator remains as therapy of choice. Antiarrhythmic therapy with different agents including beta-blockers, sotalol and amiodarone are usually not effective in reducing risk of arrhythmic events. Recent data indicated that flecainide effectively prevented the arrhythmias observed in the experimental ARVC animals and in small series of ARVC patients. These observations provide a strong rationale for conducting a pilot randomized clinical trial to determine whether flecainide will reduce ventricular arrhythmias in high-risk ARVC patients. This pilot study is designed as randomized double-blinded placebo-controlled crossover trial with administration of 100 mg of Flecainide or matching placebo twice a day for 4 weeks each with a washout period. Primary specific aim of this pilot trial is to determine whether Flecainide administration is associated with a significant reduction of number of ventricular ectopic beats (VEBs) in ARVC patients with implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD).

Timeline

Start

2019-07-23

Primary completion

2022-07-31

Completion

2022-07-31

Publications

• Background Marcus FI, Zareba W, Calkins H, Towbin JA, Basso C, Bluemke DA, Estes NA 3rd, Picard MH, Sanborn D, Thiene G, Wichter T, Cannom D, Wilber DJ, Scheinman M, Duff H, Daubert J, Talajic M, Krahn A, Sweeney M, Garan H, Sakaguchi S, Lerman BB, Kerr C, Kron J, Steinberg JS, Sherrill D, Gear K, Brown M, Severski P, Polonsky S, McNitt S. Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy/dysplasia clinical presentation and diagnostic evaluation: results from the North American Multidisciplinary Study. Heart Rhythm. 2009 Jul;6(7):984-92. doi: 10.1016/j.hrthm.2009.03.013. Epub 2009 Mar 11.
• Background Marcus FI, McKenna WJ, Sherrill D, Basso C, Bauce B, Bluemke DA, Calkins H, Corrado D, Cox MG, Daubert JP, Fontaine G, Gear K, Hauer R, Nava A, Picard MH, Protonotarios N, Saffitz JE, Sanborn DM, Steinberg JS, Tandri H, Thiene G, Towbin JA, Tsatsopoulou A, Wichter T, Zareba W. Diagnosis of arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy/dysplasia: proposed modification of the task force criteria. Circulation. 2010 Apr 6;121(13):1533-41. doi: 10.1161/CIRCULATIONAHA.108.840827. Epub 2010 Feb 19.
• Background Corrado D, Link MS, Calkins H. Arrhythmogenic Right Ventricular Cardiomyopathy. N Engl J Med. 2017 Jan 5;376(1):61-72. doi: 10.1056/NEJMra1509267. No abstract available.
• Background Cerrone M, Montnach J, Lin X, Zhao YT, Zhang M, Agullo-Pascual E, Leo-Macias A, Alvarado FJ, Dolgalev I, Karathanos TV, Malkani K, Van Opbergen CJM, van Bavel JJA, Yang HQ, Vasquez C, Tester D, Fowler S, Liang F, Rothenberg E, Heguy A, Morley GE, Coetzee WA, Trayanova NA, Ackerman MJ, van Veen TAB, Valdivia HH, Delmar M. Plakophilin-2 is required for transcription of genes that control calcium cycling and cardiac rhythm. Nat Commun. 2017 Jul 24;8(1):106. doi: 10.1038/s41467-017-00127-0.
• Background Ermakov S, Gerstenfeld EP, Svetlichnaya Y, Scheinman MM. Use of flecainide in combination antiarrhythmic therapy in patients with arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy. Heart Rhythm. 2017 Apr;14(4):564-569. doi: 10.1016/j.hrthm.2016.12.010. Epub 2016 Dec 9.
• Alexandrino FB, Faaborg-Andersen CC, daSilva-deAbreu A. Anticoagulation in patients with atrial fibrillation and heart failure: More than meets the eye? Int J Cardiol. 2024 Feb 15;397:131591. doi: 10.1016/j.ijcard.2023.131591. Epub 2023 Nov 17. No abstract available.

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