Case 166: A 76 Year-Old Woman in the Coronary ICU
History
Diagnosis
History
This 76 year-old woman presented to hospital with chest pain. She was admitted to the coronary care unit and the following ECG was recorded 2min after the onset of severe chest pain.
Diagnosis
- Polymorphic Ventricular Tachycardia
Comment: This 12 lead ECG shows recognizable QRS complexes with interspersed wide polymorphic, bizarre complexes. Note, for example, in lead V6, where the rate is approximately 150 to 160 beats per minute, there is recognizable ventricular depolarization, with a markedly prolonged slurred and slowed terminal phase of each QRS complex and merging of the QRS and ST-T wave. A combination of marked abnormalities of depolarization ( QRS complexes) and repolarization (ST-T segment) during wide complex tachycardia generally means there is profound metabolic derangement of ventricular tissue with severe disturbance of ion channel function. This is most often seen with severe myocardial ischemia (often global), hyperkalemia, or antiarrhythmic drug toxicity. In this case, the patient has severe three vessel coronary disease with ongoing severe myocardial ischemia.
ECG ID: E821