[The experimental ablation of ventricular tachycardia in dogs with intracoronary ethyl alcohol injection].

In 15 anesthetized dogs, a diagonal branch of the left anterior descending coronary artery was cannulated. Localized ventricular tachycardia (VT) was induced by injecting aconitine solution into the left ventricular wall perfused by the cannulated diagonal branch. In 6 untreated control dogs, VT lasted 17.6 +/- 8.3 minutes, 3 of them degenerated into ventricular fibrillation. The VTs were eliminated in 8 of the 9 dogs (88.9%) 1.2 +/- 1.4 minutes after injection of 96% ethyl alcohol. The pathologic examination revealed that transmural myocardial necrosis was present in 7 of 9 dogs receiving alcohol injection. Fibrin or thrombus was present in the diagonal coronary branch in 5 dogs. The conclusion was that the intracoronary injection of 96% ethyl alcohol ablated aconitine-induced ventricular tachycardia effectively. This approach may become a promising new method to treat ventricular tachycardia or other arrhythmia.