Case Report (n=5)
Short-coupled variant of torsade de pointes is an important cause of syncope and sudden death that should be suspected in patients with unexplained syncope and frequent premature ventricular contractions with short coupling despite normal QT intervals.
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Clinicians should suspect short-coupled torsade de pointes in unexplained syncope with short-coupled PVCs despite normal QT; case reports leave optimal ICD use open to prospective study.
We describe 5 cases of a rare and often lethal arrhythmia: short-coupled variant of torsade de pointes. In the light of quitecharacteristic electrocardiograms and clinical picture of this arrhythmia, we consider the name 'short-coupled variant torsade de pointes' as more appropriate than, the more commonly applied term for such cases - 'idiopathic ventricular fibrillation'. We suggest that in patients with unexplained syncope, normal echocardiogram, normal QT interval and frequent premature ventricular contraction with short coupling this arrhythmogenic entity should be suspected. We stress that these premature beats are often misclassified as supraventricular since the two major factors (slow initial depolarisation of the working myocardium and structural abnormalities of the left ventricle) responsible for typical morphological features of ventricular beats are lacking.
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Jastrzębski et al. (2014) conducted a case report in Short-coupled variant of torsade de pointes (n=5). Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) was evaluated.
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