title: Sudden death in a patient with apparent idiopathic ventricular tachycardia.
abstract: Idiopathic ventricular tachycardia is widely believed to carry a favorable prognosis, although there have also been reports of sudden cardiac deaths. We present a case of sudden death in a patient with apparent idiopathic right ventricular tachycardia. This patient had long-standing and exercise-related symptoms, an essentially negative non-invasive cardiac evaluation, and spontaneous and inducible ventricular tachycardia of left bundle branch block and inferior axis morphology, that was treated with propranolol. After an uneventful 5-year course, the patient died suddenly. Postmortem examination revealed a severely dilated right ventricle and significant replacement of the right ventricular wall with adipose tissue. Interstitial fibrosis was also seen, but only to a very slight degree.
authors.affiliation: Division of Cardiology, National Cardiovascular Center, Osaka, Japan.
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Tada
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Ohe
authors.forename: C
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Yutani
authors.forename: W
authors.initials: W
authors.lastname: Shimizu
authors.forename: T
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Kurita
authors.forename: N
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Aihara
authors.forename: S
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Kamakura
authors.forename: K
authors.initials: K
authors.lastname: Shimomura
mesh_terms: D002037:Bundle-Branch Block / Q000150:complications; D016757:Death, Sudden, Cardiac; D004562:Electrocardiography; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009206:Myocardium / Q000473:pathology; D017180:Tachycardia, Ventricular / Q000473:pathology / Q000503:physiopathology*