Sarcoidosis is a granulomatous disease of unknown pathogenesis that can affect virtually any organ system. Cardiac involvement results in significant morbidity and mortality, with some studies reporting that cardiac involvement accounts for up to 25% of all deaths from sarcoidosis in the United States and more than half of all deaths in Japan. Many deaths seem to be arrhythmic in nature and are...

UNLABELLED Catecholaminergic polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (CPVT) is an electrophysiological disorder of a physically normal heart that occurs in children when the body is subjected to intense emotional or physical stress that causes adrenergic discharge. This troubling disease can be sporadic (spontaneous) or familial (genetic/inherited). Unfortunately, its associated ventricular tachyca...

Methods and Results-—In the Multicenter Automatic Defibrillator Implantation Trial With Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy (MADIT-CRT), we evaluated long-term clinical outcome of heart failure (HF) or death, death, and HF alone by sex and QRS duration (dichotomized at 150 ms) in left bundle-branch block patients with CRT with defibrillator backup (CRT-D) versus implantable cardioverter-defibrill...

BACKGROUND Despite the technological evolution of the implantable defibrillator, one of the questions that remains is the possible benefit of the dual chamber versus single chamber implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) in reducing inappropriate shocks. OBJECTIVE To evaluate which type of device provides fewer inappropriate shocks (dual chamber versus single chamber) in patients with im...

Long QT syndrome (LQTS) can present with syncope and seizure-like activity in the setting of torsades de pointes (TdP) with hemodynamic instability. Electrolyte abnormalities and medications can predispose to TdP in the setting of latent LQTS. An implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) is needed if patients with TdP continue to be symptomatic despite medical treatment. We report a case of ...

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES To summarize the findings of the Spanish Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator Registry for 2011 compiled by the Electrophysiology and Arrhythmia Section of the Spanish Society of Cardiology. METHODS Each implantation team voluntarily and prospectively recorded data on a data collection form, which was then sent to the Spanish Society of Cardiology. RESULTS Over...

or nearly 3 decades, the implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) has been available to patients who survived life-threatening rapid heart rhythms or are at risk of experiencing them. The ICD comprises a device generator coupled with a defibrillation lead. Traditional ICDs are implanted under the skin with the generator positioned beneath the collar bone. The defibrilla-tion lead is inserte...

A 35-year-old man had a history of recurrent syncope for more than a decade. During a witnessed episode, an ambulatory electrocardiographic recording showed ventricular flutter/fibrillation that lasted for 2 1/2 minutes and terminated spontaneously without adverse neurologic sequelae. No structural heart disease and no possible etiologic factor for the ventricular tachyarrhythmia was found. The...