Mouse Heart Rate in a Human: Diagnostic Mystery of an Extreme Tachyarrhythmia

• Main Authors: Lovely Chhabra, MD, Narender Goel, MD, Laxman Prajapat, MD, David H. Spodick, MD, DSc, Sanjeev Goyal, MD
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Published: Elsevier 2012-01-01
• Series: Indian Pacing and Electrophysiology Journal
• Subjects: Tachyarrhythmia; Atrial flutter; Atrial fibrillation; Quadriplegia
• Online Access: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0972629216304636
• ISSN: 0972-6292

We report telemetry recording of an extreme non-fatal tachyarrhythmia noted in a hospitalized quadriplegic male with history of atrial fibrillation where the average ventricular conduction rate was found to be about 600 beats per minute and was associated with transient syncope. A medical literature review suggests that the fastest human ventricular conduction rate reported to date in a tachyarrhythmia is 480 beats per minute. We therefore report the fastest human heart rate noted in a tachyarrhythmia and the most probable mechanism of this arrhythmia being a rapid atrial fibrillation with 1:1 conduction in the setting of probable co-existing multiple bypass tracts.