Is this atrial fibrillation?
A 19-year-old girl was referred to our cardiology department for catheter ablation (isolation of the pulmonary veins) of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (AF). The diagnosis was made upon a 12-lead ECG of the arrhythmia documented in the emergency room. The ECG showed an irregular tachycardia without wide QRS complexes. Careful assessment revealed the irregularity of the rhythm was a sweep artifact due to a mechanic failure of the ECG-machine to advance the article smoothly. During EP study a concealed anteroseptal accessory pathway causing an orthodromic AV reentrant tachycardia was eliminated by radio-frequency ablation. This example emphasizes the need for careful assessment of an ECG tracing, including printed legends and technical data.
Jadidi
Amir S
AS
University Hospital of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland. Amir.S.Jadidi@hcuge.ch
Sunthorn
Henri
H
Burri
Haran
H
Gentil-Baron
Pascale
P
Shah
Dipen
D
D016477:Artifacts; D001281:Atrial Fibrillation / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000601:surgery; D017115:Catheter Ablation; D003937:Diagnosis, Differential; D004562:Electrocardiography; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D012680:Sensitivity and Specificity; D013611:Tachycardia, Atrioventricular Nodal Reentry / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000601:surgery; D055815:Young Adult