PURPOSE OF REVIEW To explore recent findings on the treatment and outcome of cardiac arrhythmias and how they affect ICU activities. RECENT FINDINGS The rate vs. rhythm control debate for the treatment of chronic atrial fibrillation continues. It is still unclear whether the postcardiac surgery inflammatory response contributes to the development of atrial fibrillation. In noncardiothoracic s...

A 63 year old male had a sudden episode of cardiac arrest during travel. He was resuscitated and cardioverted successfully with a semi-automatic defibrillator. The first ECG showed atrial fibrillation with inferior Q waves and he spontaneously reverted to sinus rhythm over the next few hours. The patient had been asymptomatic up to the episode of cardiac arrest and referred no prior history of ...

The superior toxicity profile is one of the major reasons for the widespread use of gemcitabine in cancer treatment. Bone marrow suppression is the most common side effect, while non-hematological events are relatively infrequent. Cardiac toxicity is a rare complication and cardiac arrhythmia is even rarer. We report the case of a 67-year-old woman with metastatic breast cancer without a histor...

P aroxysmal supraventricular tachycardias (PSVTs) encompass a wide range of rhythm disorders and occur in patients of all ages, both in the absence of and in conjunction with underlying heart disease. For example, the reciprocating tachycardias (i.e., tachyarrhythmias due to reentry within the atrioventricular [AV] node or those utilizing any of several different types of accessory connectionsl...

To determine the value of alternation of QRS morphology in determining the site of origin of sustained narrow QRS supraventricular tachycardia (SVT), we retrospectively studied 163 distinct tachycardias in 161 patients (ages 4 to 91 years) in whom the site of origin of SVT was proven by intracardiac electrophysiologic study. Sustained SVT was defined as lasting longer than 30 sec. Narrow QRS wa...