Class III 7. ICD as a standalone therapy is not indicated in an asymptomatic patient with a diagnosis of CPVT. 8. Programmed electrical stimulation is not indicated in CPVT patients.

Certain abnormalities of autonomic function in the setting of structural cardiovascular disease have been associated with an adverse prognosis. Various markers of autonomic activity have received increased attention as methods for identifying patients at risk for sudden death. Both the sympathetic and the parasympathetic limbs can be characterized by tonic levels of activity, which are modulated by, and respond reflexively to, physiological changes. Heart rate provides an index of the net effects of autonomic tone on the sinus node, and carries prognostic significance. Heart rate variability, though related to heart rate, assesses modulation of autonomic control of heart rate and carries additional prognostic information, which in some cases is more powerful than heart rate alone. Heart rate recovery after exercise represents the changes in autonomic tone that occur immediately after cessation of exercise. This index has also been shown to have prognostic significance. Autonomic evaluation during exercise and recovery may be important prognostically, because these are high-risk periods for sudden death, and the autonomic changes that occur with exercise could modulate this high risk. These markers provide related, but not redundant information about different aspects of autonomic effects on the sinus node.

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The objective of this study was to evaluate whether heart rate variability (HRV) can be used as an index of parasympathetic reactivation after exercise. Heart rate recovery after exercise has recently been shown to have prognostic significance and has been postulated to be related to abnormal recovery of parasympathetic tone. Ten normal subjects [5 men and 5 women; age 33 ± 5 yr (mean ± SE)] exercised to their maximum capacity, and 12 subjects (10 men and 2 women; age 61 ± 10 yr) with coronary artery disease exercised for 16 min on two separate occasions, once in the absence of atropine and once with atropine (0.04 mg/kg) administered during exercise. The root mean square residual (RMS), which measures the deviation of the R-R intervals from a straight line, as well as the standard deviation (SD) and the root mean square successive difference of the R-R intervals (MSSD), were measured on successive 15-, 30-, and 60-s segments of a 5-min ECG obtained immediately after exercise. In recovery, the R-R interval was shorter with atropine ( P < 0.0001). Without atropine, HRV, as measured by the MSSD and RMS, increased early in recovery from 4.1 ± 0.4 and 3.7 ± 0.4 ms in the first 15 s to 7.2 ± 1.0 and 7.4 ± 0.9 ms after 1 min, respectively ( P < 0.0001). RMS (range 1.7–2.1 ms) and MSSD were less with atropine ( P < 0.0001). RMS remained flat throughout recovery, whereas MSSD showed some decline over time from 3.0 to 2.2 ms ( P < 0.002). RMS and MSSD were both directly related ( r2 = 0.47 and 0.56, respectively; P < 0.0001) to parasympathetic effect, defined as the difference in R-R interval without and with atropine. In conclusion, RMS and MSSD are parameters of HRV that can be used in the postexercise recovery period as indexes of parasympathetic reactivation after exercise. These tools may improve our understanding of parasympathetic reactivation after exercise and the prognostic significance of heart rate recovery.

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