How should refractory ventricular tachycardia be treated?
1979; Elsevier BV; Volume: 44; Issue: 6 Linguagem: Inglês
10.1016/0002-9149(79)90191-7
ISSN1879-1913
Autores Tópico(s)Cardiac electrophysiology and arrhythmias
ResumoI can see it now. In a soon to be released major motion picture, Q will present to James Bond a gunlike device that, when pointed at a victim, will silently produce ventricular tachycardia. Death will be ascribed to a heart attack, and no evidence of Agent 007’s well known license to kill will be found. Actually a gun to induce ventricular tachycardia has been developed. It is called an electrode catheter, and the energy source is a programmed stimulator. Whereas Bond would not need an “effective therapeutic modality” (what an ungracious phrase) for his induced ventricular tachycardia, physicians are frequently called on to treat this most alarming condition. Ventricular tachycardia produces uncomfortable, disabling symptoms, frequently develops in patients with other severe cardiac disabilities, is recurrent, not isolated, and can be fatal. The frequent visits to emergency wards for conversion to sinus rhythm and the repeated admissions to the intensive care unit of the hospital frighten the patient and his family and frustrate the physician who is seeking remission of the problem. When a cardiologist thinks about the most troublesome condition that he is called upon to treat, surely ventricular tachycardia would be at or near the top of his list. Three programs are available for the treatment of ventricular t,achycardia: drugs, pacing and surgery. The purpose of each is basically the same, to disengage the operation of a reentrant circuit within the heart either
Referência(s)