title: [The significance of ventricular tachycardia morphology for prognosis and follow-up].
abstract: To assess the prognostic value of ventricular tachycardia (VT) morphology we studied data from 56 patients (pts) with old myocardial infarctions and documented sustained monomorphic VT. There were 22/56 pts (39%) with a left bundle branch block (LBBB) pattern of the spontaneous VT and 34/56 pts (61%) with a right bundle branch block (RBBB) VT. During a mean follow-up of 34 +/- 11 months, 12 pts died from cardiac causes, four of them suddenly. Total mortality was higher in pts with RBBB-VT (9/34, 26%) than in those with LBBB-VT (3/22, 14%) (p = 0.21), despite a significantly shorter VT cycle length in pts with LBBB-VT (306 +/- 56 ms) than in those with RBBB-VT (344 +/- 76 ms) (p less than 0.05). All pts who died suddenly had a RBBB-VT. During programmed stimulation, VT with the same morphology as the spontaneous VT was induced more frequently in pts with LBBB-VT (off drugs: 7/14, 50%; on drugs: 10/16, 63%) than in pts with RBBB-VT (off drugs: 7/20, 35%, on drugs: 8/28, 29%) (p = ns). In contrast, VT with different or multiple morphologies were induced more frequently in pts with RBBB-VT (off drugs: 13/20, 65%; on drugs: 20/28, 71%) than in pts with LBBB-VT (off drugs: 7/14, 50%; on drugs: 6/16, 38%) (p less than 0.05). Our data show that there is a higher risk of cardiac and sudden death in pts with RBBB-VT than in those with LBBB-VT after myocardial infarction, despite a shorter cycle length of the spontaneous VT in patients with LBBB-VT.
authors.affiliation: Abteilung Kardiologie des Akademischen Krankenhauses Maastricht, Holland.
authors.forename: H J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Trappe
authors.forename: P
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Brugada
authors.forename: R
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Lezaun
authors.forename: H J
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Wellens
mesh_terms: D000368:Aged; D002036:Bundle of His / Q000503:physiopathology; D002037:Bundle-Branch Block / Q000503:physiopathology; D002304:Cardiac Pacing, Artificial; D003645:Death, Sudden / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000209:etiology*; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D005860:Germany, West / Q000453:epidemiology; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009203:Myocardial Infarction / Q000401:mortality / Q000503:physiopathology*; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D012307:Risk Factors; D013610:Tachycardia / Q000401:mortality / Q000503:physiopathology*
vernacular_title: Die Bedeutung der Kammertachykardie-Morphologie für Prognose und Verlauf.