Catheter ablation of ventricular tachycardia in patients with coronary heart disease.

Catheter ablation for treatment of cardiac tachyarrhythmias has evolved as an alternative to antitachycardia surgery and has been proven to be effective in the disruption or modification of either atrio-ventricular (AV) conduction or accessory AV-connections [1–5, 11]. The role of ablation in the treatment of patients with ventricular tachycardia [6–29] is less defined as the success rate especially in patients with underlying cardiac abnormalities is only 50–80%. Over the last 10 years a variety of energy sources for ablation of ventricular tachycardia such as direct-current, radiofrequency energy, chemical agents, laser energy or ultrasound, have been introduced. In principle, the energy or chemical agent must be delivered to the endocardium close to the site of origin of ventricular tachycardia.