Abstract
A 74 year old man had recurrent ventricular tachycardia, which was well controlled with amiodarone, and complete heart block for which a VVI permanent pacing system had previously been implanted. After an elective increase in the programmed pacemaker rate from 70 to 82 beats/min, there was recurrence of frequent episodes of ventricular tachycardia. Each episode of tachycardia was initiated by a fusion beat consisting of a ventricular extrasystole and a paced beat. When the pacemaker rate was reprogrammed to 70 beats/min the episodes of tachycardia ceased abruptly. It is proposed that the fusion of a ventricular extrasystole with a pacemaker beat may have induced ventricular tachycardia, even though neither of these beats occurring separately was sufficient to cause this.
Full text
PDF
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- Karbenn U., Borggrefe M., Breithardt G. Pacemaker-induced ventricular tachycardia in normally functioning ventricular demand pacemakers. Am J Cardiol. 1989 Jan 1;63(1):120–122. doi: 10.1016/0002-9149(89)91094-1. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Lau C. P. Sensors and pacemaker mediated tachycardias. Pacing Clin Electrophysiol. 1991 Apr;14(4 Pt 1):495–498. doi: 10.1111/j.1540-8159.1991.tb02819.x. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Mickley H., Andersen C., Nielsen L. H. Runaway pacemaker: a still existing complication and therapeutic guidelines. Clin Cardiol. 1989 Jul;12(7):412–414. doi: 10.1002/clc.4960120713. [DOI] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]