Electrocardiographic and electrophysiologic characteristics in patients with Brugada type electrocardiogram and inducible ventricular fibrillation: single center experience.
BACKGROUND
The study examined the electrocardiographic and electrophysiologic characteristics in relation to programmed ventricular stimulation (PVS)-induced ventricular fibrillation (VF) in patients with Brugada syndrome.


RESULTS
Thirty-four patients with a Brugada-type electrocardiogram (ECG) were enrolled. Twelve patients had a type 1 ECG, 12 had a type 2 ECG, and 10 had a type 3 ECG. PVS was performed with up to 2 ventricular premature beats from the right ventricular apex and outflow tract at 2 basic cycle lengths (600 and 400 ms). VF was induced in 17 of 23 (74%) asymptomatic patients and 10 of 11 (91%) symptomatic patients (p<0.05). The 27 patients in whom VF was induced by PVS and 7 patients without inducible VF were followed up for 47.1+/-33.7 months. One sudden death occurred during the follow-up period among asymptomatic patients with inducible VF, and no sudden death occurred among patients without inducible VF.


CONCLUSIONS
In conclusion, inducibility of ventricular arrhythmia is high in patients with Brugada syndrome, but it does not correlate with clinical presentation. Few arrhythmic events occur during follow up. However, the present study data suggest that electrophysiologic study-induced VF does not predict arrhythmic events during follow up.
Ohkubo
Kimie
K
Department of Cardiovascular Disease, Nihon University School of Medicine, Tokyo, Japan.
Watanabe
Ichiro
I
Takagi
Yasuhiro
Y
Okumura
Yasuo
Y
Ashino
Sonoko
S
Kofune
Masayoshi
M
Kawauchi
Kazunori
K
Yamada
Takeshi
T
Kofune
Tatsuya
T
Hashimoto
Kenichi
K
Shindo
Atsushi
A
Sugimura
Hidezou
H
Nakai
Toshiko
T
Saito
Satoshi
S
Hirayama
Atsushi
A
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D053840:Brugada Syndrome / Q000503:physiopathology*; D004558:Electric Stimulation / Q000009:adverse effects; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D011237:Predictive Value of Tests; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D014693:Ventricular Fibrillation / Q000503:physiopathology*