New Year’s Resolution: ATP February 1, 2010

The New Year is here, full of personal resolutions to eat better and exercise more. So far, a few (handfuls of) M&Ms may have accidentally found their way to me. And my plan to exercise every day is, well, still in the planning phase.

But despite my personal resolution…um…plans, I am determined to make my professional resolution stick. 2010 will be the year of ATP – that is, making sure that antitachycardia pacing (ATP) is programmed for every appropriate patient, according to evidence shown by Walthen et al. (2004) in the PainFREE RX II trial.

This year, I’m taking special note to check the tachy zones to make sure that even for prophylactic ICDs, there is a VT zone with ATP programmed. And if there’s not, I have a plan in place to address it in my practice.

I hope that none of my patients ever have to have ATP, and that their prophylactic ICDs remain prophylactic and not therapeutic. But just in case, I feel good knowing that I have done everything I can, using all the evidence available, to avoid unnecessary shocks in 2010 and onward.