"Pseudo" late potentials unmasked by spectrocardiography.
We present a patient with chronic obstructive pulmonary disease and sustained ventricular tachycardia in the setting of unstable coronary artery disease. Signal-averaged ECG (SAECG), inadvertently performed during an atrial tachycardia with 2:1 atrioventricular (AV) block, was abnormal by time-domain analysis, but was normal by a relatively new frequency analysis technique of the entire QRS (spectrocardiography). The patient was noninducible for sustained ventricular arrhythmias. Following cardioversion to sinus rhythm, SAECG was normal by time-domain analysis and spectrocardiography. This technique may show promise in the management of patients who are at risk for sustained ventricular arrhythmias, particularly those who cannot be evaluated by time-domain analysis.
Goldman
D S
DS
University of Florida Health Science Center, Jacksonville, USA.
Henkin
R
R
Kelen
G
G
D000368:Aged; D002304:Cardiac Pacing, Artificial; D004562:Electrocardiography / Q000379:methods*; D005260:Female; D006329:Heart Conduction System / Q000503:physiopathology; D006801:Humans; D008173:Lung Diseases, Obstructive / Q000150:complications; D012815:Signal Processing, Computer-Assisted; D013610:Tachycardia / Q000175:diagnosis; D013617:Tachycardia, Supraventricular / Q000175:diagnosis*