Ventricular tachycardia induced by pacing algorithm designed to avoid atrial fibrillation

A patient with a dual chamber pacemaker was admitted to the emergency room after out-of-hospital cardioversion for syncopal sustained monomorphic ventricular tachycardia. Device interrogation revealed an abnormally timed ventricular spike after a ventricular premature beat at the beginning of the ev...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Authors: David Roque, Nuno Cabanelas, João Augusto, Francisco Madeira, Hugo Vasconcelos, Carlos Morais
Format: Article
Language:English
Published: Elsevier 2020-10-01
Series:Revista Portuguesa de Cardiologia
Subjects:
Online Access:http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0870255120303838
Description
Summary:A patient with a dual chamber pacemaker was admitted to the emergency room after out-of-hospital cardioversion for syncopal sustained monomorphic ventricular tachycardia. Device interrogation revealed an abnormally timed ventricular spike after a ventricular premature beat at the beginning of the event, caused by a pacemaker algorithm designed to avoid atrial fibrillation, non-competitive atrial pacing. Despite the absence of significant coronary lesions, in the setting of a vulnerable substrate – a hypokinetic and hyperechogenic region of ventricular myocardium – an upgrade to a dual-chamber implantable cardioverter-defibrillator was performed, and substrate ablation was planned. Resumo: Doente com pacemaker de dupla câmara é admitido no Serviço de Urgência após uma cardioversão fora do hospital por episódio sincopal secundário a taquicardia ventricular monomórfica mantida. A interrogação do dispositivo revelou um spike ventricular inapropriado após uma extrassístole ventricular no início do evento, provocado por um algoritmo de pacemaker desenhado para evitar fibrilhação auricular – o non-competitive atrial pacing (NCAP). Apesar da ausência de lesões coronárias significativas, no contexto de substrato vulnerável – uma região hipocinética e hiperecogénica de miocárdio ventricular – upgrade para cardiodesfibrilhador implantável (CDI) bicamaral foi realizado e ablação de substrato planeada.
ISSN:0870-2551