title: Mechanisms and catheter ablation of ventricular tachycardia.
abstract: In summary, in patients who have structural heart disease, VT usually originates from the left ventricle, is frequently life threatening, and a defibrillator is usually required. Ablation can be successful regardless of the hemodynamic stability of the tachycardia and usually depends on whether or not one can identify the diseased substrate. In the absence of structural heart disease, VT usually originates from the right ventricle and oftentimes the outflow tract. It's typically not life threatening, and first-line therapy can be either drugs or ablation.
authors.affiliation: Experimental Electrophysiology Laboratory, Cardiac Arrhythmia Service, Massachusetts General Hospital, Boston, Massachusetts 02114, USA. vreddy@partners.org
authors.forename: Vivek Y
authors.initials: VY
authors.lastname: Reddy
mesh_terms: D017115:Catheter Ablation / Q000379:methods*; D017147:Defibrillators, Implantable; D022062:Electrophysiologic Techniques, Cardiac; D006352:Heart Ventricles / Q000601:surgery; D006801:Humans; D017180:Tachycardia, Ventricular / Q000503:physiopathology / Q000601:surgery*