FLECAINIDE

Flecainide is a Class IC antiarrhythmic agent whose primary electrophysiologic effect is a slowing of conduction in a wide range of cardiac tissues. It is well absorbed and effective in suppressing isolated premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) or nonsustained ventricular arrhythmia but has only a modest efficacy when electrophysiologic testing is used as an endpoint. Its adverse effect on mortality in the CAST trial suggested a propensity to proarrhythmia-a phenomenon to which the Class IC agents appear particularly prone. Despite the applicability of the CAST study only to patients with a prior myocardial infarction, there has been a shift away from flecainide in ventricular arrhythmia, but the low noncardiac side effect profile of the agent allows for its continued use in a wide variety of supraventricular arrhythmias.