Why the study?
What is the frequency of narrow QRS ventricular tachycardia among patients with inducible ventricular tachycardia?
What is the frequency of narrow QRS ventricular tachycardia among patients with inducible ventricular tachycardia?
Narrow QRS ventricular tachycardia occurs in nearly 5% of patients with VT and is frequently misdiagnosed as SVT, highlighting the need to look for other ECG criteria for VT.
Narrow QRS VT may lead to SVT misdiagnosis; cross-sectional data leaves open need for validated ECG criteria and prospective studies.
OBJECTIVE: To determine the frequency and clinical characteristics of narrow QRS ventricular tachycardia (QRS duration less than or equal to 0.11 seconds). DESIGN: Consecutive survey of patients with ventricular tachycardia. SETTING: Tertiary, referral-based arrhythmia service at a university medical center. PATIENTS: Sequential sample of patients with inducible ventricular tachycardia who had a 12-lead electrocardiogram of the tachycardia available for review. MEASUREMENTS AND MAIN RESULTS: Of 106 patients with ventricular tachycardia, 5 (4.7%; 95% CI, 2.1% to 10.6%) had ventricular tachycardia with a QRS duration less than or equal to 0.11 seconds. Three of the five patients were previously incorrectly diagnosed as having supraventricular tachycardia. All five patients had at least two electrocardiographic findings other than QRS duration to suggest ventricular tachycardia. CONCLUSIONS: Narrow QRS ventricular tachycardia should be considered in the differential diagnosis of narrow QRS tachycardias. Electrocardiographic findings other than QRS duration are usually present to suggest the diagnosis.
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Hayes et al. (1991) studied this question.
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