Inappropriate shock delivery by implantable defibrillators with dual chamber pacing during nonsustained ventricular tachycardia in patients with heart block
J. Sra et M. Akhtar, Inappropriate shock delivery by implantable defibrillators with dual chamber pacing during nonsustained ventricular tachycardia in patients with heart block, PACE, 23(6), 2000, pp. 1054-1056
Citations number
10
Categorie Soggetti
Cardiovascular & Respiratory Systems","Cardiovascular & Hematology Research
Transvenous implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) have improved th
e management of patients with ventricular tachycardia/ventricular fibrillat
ion (VT/VF).(1-5) Many patients with sustained VT/VF have bradyarrhythmias
and nonsustained VT.(6-9) Shock delivery due to nonsustained VT would be an
undesirable feature. Abortive shock capability (noncommitted shocks) is a
feature available in devices to prevent delivery of shocks for nonsustained
VT.(6-8) Recently, the availability of dual chamber pacing capability has
improved the efficacy of ICDs by obviating the need of separate pacemaker i
mplantation in patients with VT/VF and concomitant bradyarrhythmias.(10) Ho
wever, interaction between bradyarrhythmias and VT/VF has not been describe
d and has important clinical implications. We report a case in which a pati
ent with complete atrioventricular (AV) block and ventricular arrhythmias r
eceived an inappropriate shock following spontaneous termination of nonsust
ained VT, showing an important shortcoming of devices with these features.