The CAST RR Interval Sub-Study Database

The Cardiac Arrhythmia Suppression Trial (CAST) was a landmark NHLBI-sponsored study designed to test the hypothesis that the suppression of asymptomatic or mildly symptomatic ventricular premature complexes (PVCs) in survivors of myocardial infarction (MI) would decrease the number of deaths from ventricular arrhythmias and improve survival. Enrollment required an acute MI within the preceding 2 years and 6 or more PVCs per hour during a pre-treatment (qualifying) long-term ECG (Holter) recording. Those subjects enrolled within 90 days of the index MI were required to have left ventricular ejection fractions less than or equal to 55%, while those enrolled after this 90 day window were required to have an ejection fraction less than or equal to 40%. CAST enrolled 3,549 patients in all.