Symptomatic repetitive right ventricular outflow tract ventricular tachycardia in pregnancy and postpartum

• Published in: Reviews in cardiovascular medicine Vol. 10; no. 3; p. 171
• Main Authors: Goli, Anil K, Koduri, Madhav, Downs, Christopher, Mackall, Judith
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Singapore 2009
• Subjects: Adrenergic beta-Antagonists - therapeutic use; Adult; Catheter Ablation; Electrocardiography; Electrophysiologic Techniques, Cardiac; Female; Heart Conduction System - physiopathology; Humans; Postpartum Period; Pregnancy; Pregnancy Complications, Cardiovascular - etiology; Pregnancy Complications, Cardiovascular - physiopathology; Pregnancy Complications, Cardiovascular - therapy; Tachycardia, Ventricular - etiology; Tachycardia, Ventricular - physiopathology; Tachycardia, Ventricular - therapy; Treatment Outcome; Ventricular Premature Complexes - etiology; Ventricular Premature Complexes - physiopathology; Ventricular Premature Complexes - therapy
• ISSN: 1530-6550
• DOI: 10.3909/ricm0469

Idiopathic ventricular tachycardias, which occur in patients without structural heart disease, are a common entity, representing up to 10% of all ventricular tachycardias evaluated by cardiac electrophysiology services. Pregnancy can increase the incidence of various cardiac arrhythmias. Factors that can potentially promote arrhythmias in pregnancy include the effects of hormones, changes in autonomic tone, hemodynamic perturbations, hypokalemia, and underlying heart disease. Ventricular arrhythmias in pregnancy are repetitive monomorphic ventricular premature complexes and couplets that frequently originate at the right ventricular outflow tract. New onset symptomatic repetitive right ventricular outflow tract ventricular tachycardia during pregnancy has been inadequately reported in the literature. We present a case of symptomatic repetitive right ventricular outflow tract tachycardia that started during pregnancy and continued in the postpartum period, requiring curative treatment with electrophysiology study and radiofrequency ablation.