Table 1.

Patient baseline characteristics

Characteristics	Procainamide (n = 33)	Amiodarone (n = 29)	P
Age (years)	62 ± 16	69 ± 11	0.08
Emergency room	26 (79)	24 (83)	0.7
Structural heart disease	26 (79)	23 (79)	0.96
Coronary artery disease	15 (45)	15 (52)	0.62
Dilated cardiomyopathy	6 (18)	4 (14)	0.64
Arrhythmogenic right ventricular cardiomyopathy	1 (3)	1 (3)	0.94
Other	4 (12)	3 (10)	0.83
LVEF	0.40 ± 0.13 (n = 29)	0.37 ± 0.15 (n = 24)	0.37
SBP at admission (mmHg)	115 ± 16	116 ± 19	0.85
Heart rate (beats/min)	179 ± 31	176 ± 32	0.75
QRS (ms)	153 ± 26	165 ± 32	0.13
QRS morphology			0.37
Right bundle branch block	24 (73)	18 (62)
Left bundle branch block	9 (27)	11 (38)
Potassium (mmol/L)	4.4 ± 0.6 (n = 28)	4.6 ± 0.7 (n = 26)	0.23
Creatinine (mg/dL)	1.3 ± 0.5 (n = 29)	1.4 ± 0.6 (n = 26)	0.29
Lidocaine during transport to hospital	0	0	—
Adenosine at emergency room	4 (12)	0	0.05
Previous oral pharmacological treatment
Amiodarone	0	5(17)	0.02
β-Blockers	11 (33)	10 (34)	0.92
ACE-inhibitors/ARBs	16 (48)	14 (48)	0.89
Calcium channel blockers	2 (6)	2 (7)	0.89
Other class I or III antiarrhythmic drugs	0	0	—

Values are n (%) and mean ± SD.

LVEF, left ventricular ejection fraction; SBP, systolic blood pressure.