These tools will no longer be maintained as of December 31, 2024. Archived website can be found here. PubMed4Hh GitHub repository can be found here. Contact NLM Customer Service if you have questions.


Pubmed for Handhelds

PUBMED FOR HANDHELDS

Search MEDLINE/PubMed

  • Title: Sudden death in hospitalized patients: cardiac rhythm disturbances detected by ambulatory electrocardiographic monitoring.
    Author: Panidis IP, Morganroth J.
    Journal: J Am Coll Cardiol; 1983 Nov; 2(5):798-805. PubMed ID: 6630760.
    Abstract:
    To determine the cardiac rhythm disturbances underlying sudden death, 15 patients (14 inpatients and 1 outpatient) who had cardiac arrest unexpectedly while undergoing ambulatory electrocardiographic monitoring were identified. Heart disease was present in 11 patients and 7 patients were admitted to the hospital with chest pain before sudden cardiac death occurred. The terminal event at the time of cardiac arrest in 3 (20%) of the 15 patients was a bradyarrhythmia expressed as complete heart block; none survived. A ventricular tachyarrhythmia was the precursor of sudden cardiac death in the remaining 12 patients (80%). Two of these 12 had slow ventricular tachycardia and both died. Five had polymorphous ventricular tachycardia associated with prolonged QT interval (torsade de pointes) and three were receiving a class I antiarrhythmic agent. This rhythm degenerated into ventricular fibrillation in one patient; four of the five patients survived after electrical cardioversion. One patient had ventricular tachycardia followed by asystole. Four patients had ventricular flutter (rate greater than 250/min) that degenerated into ventricular fibrillation in each case; only one of these four patients survived after cardioversion. Frequent (greater than 30/h) premature ventricular complexes were present in 9 of 10 patients with ventricular tachycardia or flutter and R on T phenomenon was seen in only 1 patient. In conclusion, a ventricular tachyarrhythmia is usually found on Holter monitoring during sudden cardiac death in hospitalized patients; torsade de pointes (polymorphous ventricular tachycardia) is a frequent cause of sudden death in these patients. Ventricular fibrillation is always preceded by ventricular tachycardia or ventricular flutter.
    [Abstract] [Full Text] [Related] [New Search]