Therapies for ventricular arrhythmias: Future directions

Current antiarrhythmic therapies, implantable defibrillators and catheter ablations have certain limitations for treatment of complex arrhythmias such as ventricular fibrillation and therefore new approaches for ventricular arrhythmia therapy are required. A review of the limitations of current treatment modalities can provide some guidance for designing new treatments. The major limitation of all currently available arrhythmia therapies is the fact that they often do not address the underlying pathologies which resulted in dysrhythmia. Some potential upstream therapeutic targets based on the current experimental and clinical studies include angiotensin, oxidative stress, myocardial fibrosis, myofilament Ca2+ sensitivity, increasing sodium current and micro RNAs. Search for better understanding of the mechanisms of complex arrhythmias should continue in order to design more effective antiarrhythmic treatments.