Nonsustained ventricular tachycardia in patients without structural heart disease

<ns3:p>Nonsustained ventricular tachycardia (NSVT) is usually a mild entity without serious clinical consequences. Nevertheless, exercise-induced NSVT, and short cycle length of tachycardia, significant arrhythmia burden may predict increased cardiac mortality. NSVT is defined as 3 or more consecutive ventricular beats with a rate over 100 beats/min or more, lasting less than 30 s, that can be diagnosed on the basis of electrocardiography, Holter, telemetry, cardiac monitors or exercise test, after careful wide QRS tachycardia differential diagnostics, artefacts, supraventricular tachycardia with aberration, Hiss-Purkinje block or additional atrio-ventricular pathway descending conduction exclusion. It is necessary to assess homogeneity of the tachycardia (monomorphic or polymorphic), exclude ischemic, structural and genetic heart disease. The treatment is based on observation, farmacotherapy (mainly with beta-blockers, calcium channels blockers and antiarrhythmics) and percutaneous ablation. Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator is not recommended. The prognosis is usually good.</ns3:p>