Case 52: A 53-Year-Old Woman in the Pre-op Clinic
A 57-year-old woman is being assessed in pre-op clinic before a left breast lumpectomy. 6 years ago she was told that her ECG was abnormal. She had been active without symptoms and her cardiac investigation, including echocardiogram and exercise test, had been normal:
(Compared with the previous tracings, there has been no change)
The lumpectomy is carried out without complication.The following is a routine ECG recorded before discharge from the hospital. The patient is asymptomatic:
RBBB plus LPFB (bifascicular block)
Comparison of the two tracing shows that the pattern of left posterior fascicular block is clearly present in the first portion of the QRS of ECG 2.
In RBBB the ventricular activation starts in the left ventricle and the first 60 msec of the QRS represent LV depolarization. That’s why the pattern of left posterior fascicular block can still be seen.
ECG ID: E454