Table 1 Secondary prevention trials of sudden cardiac death.

Trial	Year	No. patients	Enrolment criteria	Aim	Results
AVID	1997	1016	Survived VT/VF cardiac arrest or VT with syncope or VT with LVEF ⩽40%	Antiarrhythmic treatment vs ICD	31% reduction of mortality with ICD at 3 years
DUTCH	1995	60	Survived cardiac arrest due to VF/VT and old MI (>4 weeks) and inducible VT at EPS	ICD as first choice therapy vs conventional therapeutic strategy (antiarrhythmic drugs and then eventual ICD)	ICD as first choice therapy reduces primary end points (death, recurrent cardiac arrest and cardiac transplantation)
CASH	2000	288	Cardiac arrest due to VF or VT	ICD vs antiarrhythmic agents	23% reduction of all cause mortality with ICD
CIDS	2000	659	Cardiac arrest due to VF or sustained VT and syncope or poor tolerated VT and LVEF <40% or syncope and inducible or monitored VT	ICD vs amiodarone	20% reduction of all cause mortality with ICD

AVID, Antiarrhythmic Versus Implantable Defibrillators; CASH, Cardiac Arrest Study Hamburg; CIDS, Canadian Implantable Defibrillator Study; EPS, electrophysiological study; ICD, implantable cardioverter‐defibrillator; LVEF, left ventricular ejection fraction; MI, myocardial infarction; VF, ventricular fibrillation; VT, ventricular tachycardia.