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A Patient with “Atrial Torsades de Pointes”
Author(s) -
KIRCHHOF PAULUS,
ECKARDT LARS,
MÖNNIG GEROLD,
JOHNA ROBERT,
LOH PETER,
SCHULZEBAHR ERIC,
BREITHARDT GÜNTER,
BORGGREEE MARTIN,
HAVERKAMP WILHELM
Publication year - 2000
Publication title -
journal of cardiovascular electrophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.193
H-Index - 138
eISSN - 1540-8167
pISSN - 1045-3873
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-8167.2000.tb00052.x
Subject(s) - torsades de pointes , medicine , afterdepolarization , cardiology , repolarization , palpitations , atrial flutter , anesthesia , atrium (architecture) , qt interval , atrial fibrillation , electrophysiology
Atrial Torsades de Pointes. A patient with long QT syndrome and a history of palpitations underwent electrophysiologic study. Runs of polymorphic self‐terminating atrial tachyarrhythmias were easily induced and occurred spontaneously several times. Atrial monophasic action potential (MAP) durations were prolonged at short pacing cycle lengths. Premature high right atrial extrastimuli prolonged MAP duration in the low right atrium, resulting in an inverse electrical restitution curve, and increased dispersion of repolarization. MAP morphology showed gradually increasing early afterdepolarizations. When the arrhythmia was initiated, a new action potential reproducibly emerged from these afterdepolarizations. To the knowledge of the authors, this is the first reported case of “atrial torsades de pointes” in a patient.