Spectrum of right heart involvement in patients with ventricular tachycardia unrelated to coronary artery disease or left ventricular dysfunction

Am Heart J. 1993 Dec;126(6):1348-56. doi: 10.1016/0002-8703(93)90533-f.

Abstract

We studied 41 patients with clinically symptomatic ventricular tachycardia in the absence of coronary artery disease or left ventricular dysfunction to define the extent of right and left heart derangement and their relation to electrophysiologic and clinical data. Individual echocardiographic measurements as well as global assessment scores of the right and left heart demonstrated a wide spectrum of right heart echocardiographic abnormalities. There was much less variation in the left heart, with the majority of patients being close to normal. There was an association between the right heart score, the clinical presentation of arrhythmia, the response to programmed electrical stimulation, and the recurrence of arrhythmia (p < 0.05). Thus echocardiographic findings demonstrate the whole spectrum of right heart involvement in patients with apparent idiopathic ventricular tachycardia and can give insight into clinical history, arrhythmia inducibility, and prognosis.

Publication types

  • Comparative Study

MeSH terms

  • Adolescent
  • Adult
  • Aged
  • Coronary Disease
  • Echocardiography, Doppler
  • Electrocardiography
  • Female
  • Heart Ventricles / diagnostic imaging*
  • Heart Ventricles / pathology
  • Heart Ventricles / physiopathology
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Middle Aged
  • Tachycardia, Ventricular / diagnostic imaging*
  • Tachycardia, Ventricular / pathology
  • Tachycardia, Ventricular / physiopathology
  • Ventricular Function, Left