Does an antitachycardia pacemaker improve left ventricular function in a patient with congestive cardiomyopathy induced by chronic ventricular tachycardia?
Tachycardia-induced cardiomyopathy is a reversible condition that can resolve after successful treatment of the underlying arrhythmia.
A patient with congestive cardiomyopathy, induced by ventricular tachycardia, is presented. The patient had chronic ventricular tachycardia, which persisted 4 months and was eventually successfully treated by an antitachycardia pacemaker. A severe left ventricular dysfunction persisted after treatment for some days and then gradually resolved. After 3 months the indices of left ventricular function returned to normal values. The tachycardia-induced ventricular dysfunction seems to be a reversible disorder.
Rakovec et al. (Sat,) studied this question.