Highlights an uncommon variant of Wellens' syndrome with biphasic T waves extending to lateral precordial leads (V2-V6), emphasizing the need for immediate recognition to prevent infarction.
A 48-year-old male was admitted to the emergency department because of intermittent chest pain of 2 days duration. At the time of examination, he was pain-free. An electrocardiogram (ECG) showed biphasic T waves in leads V2 to V6. Troponin-I level was negative. During his transfer to the cardiac catheterization laboratory, he had a short episode of chest pain. His ECG was normal. Despite the unusual extension of biphasic T waves to the lateral precordial leads, the condition was recognized as Wellens’ syndrome, which typically associates biphasic or deep symmetric T wave inversion in leads V2 and V3 during pain-free periods with a critical stenosis in the proximal left anterior descending artery. The syndrome is uncommon to medical practice but should be recognized immediately in the emergency department because it represents a pre-infarction stage and carries a high risk of mortality.
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Mansour et al. (2017) studied this question.
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