Ventricular Tachycardia?

Figure 1+2

Figure 1: Long-term ECG performed at the primary care medical office; Figure 2: Closer analysis of the long-term ECG performed at the primary care medical office

A 59-year-old female patient presented with “suspected ventricular tachycardia” on the basis of “abnormalities in long-term ECG” (Figure 1). Cryoablation of the slow pathway had already been performed for slow-fast AVNRT (atrioventricular nodal reentry tachycardia). The ECG on the ward showed no sign of long or short QT (cQT time of 430 ms), and a heart rate of 86/min in sinus rhythm. A more detailed history of the event revealed that the patient had been operating an electric blender at the time of ventricular tachycardia and was completely asymptomatic. The long-term ECG performed at the primary care physician’s office also showed a concealed sinus rhythm (Figure 2). In addition, these artifacts could only be seen in the limb leads and not in the chest leads.

We reconstructed the situation on the ward. Here, the same artifacts were demonstrated while the patient operated the blender. This could be generated by the electrical impulses transmitted to the body in the form of these artifacts. The use of any small electronic devices that produce strong vibrations can represent a confounding factor in the diagnosis of intermittent tachycardia.

Dr. medic. Beatrice Kühn, Dr. med. Stefan Borov, Prof. Dr. med. Bernhard Zrenner
Klinik für Kardiologie, Pneumologie und internistischen Intensivmedizin LAKUMED Klinikum Landshut-Achdorf, [e-mail]

Conflict of interest statement: The authors declare that no conflict of interest exists.

Translated from the original German by Christine Rye.

Cite this as: Kühn B, Borov S, Zrenner B: Ventricular tachycardia? Dtsch Arztebl Int 2021; 118: 319. DOI: 10.3238/arztebl.m2021.0100