Sudden Death Due to Low-Energy Chest-Wall Impact (Commotio Cordis)

To the Editor: Link et al. (June 18 issue) 1 developed an animal model of commotio cordis. Ventricular fibrillation was reproducibly and instantaneously initiated by impacts to the chest during a narrow temporal window on the upstroke of the T wave in young pigs under general anesthesia. Swine may h...

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Bibliographic Details
Published inThe New England journal of medicine Vol. 339; no. 19; pp. 1398 - 1399
Main Authors Bökenkamp, R, Paul, T
Format Journal Article
LanguageEnglish
Published United States Massachusetts Medical Society 05.11.1998
Subjects
Animals
Death, Sudden, Cardiac - etiology
Disease Models, Animal
Electrocardiography
Humans
Species Specificity
Swine
Thoracic Injuries - complications
Ventricular Fibrillation - etiology
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Summary:To the Editor: Link et al. (June 18 issue) 1 developed an animal model of commotio cordis. Ventricular fibrillation was reproducibly and instantaneously initiated by impacts to the chest during a narrow temporal window on the upstroke of the T wave in young pigs under general anesthesia. Swine may have a low threshold for ventricular fibrillation as a species-specific characteristic. Radio-frequency ablation in humans rarely leads to ventricular fibrillation. 2 However, in a study of the long-term effects of this procedure, 3 all 10 young German Landrace pigs (mean [±SD] weight, 13.9±2.1 kg) had ventricular fibrillation when radio-frequency current was delivered to the . . .
Bibliography:SourceType-Other Sources-1
content type line 63
ObjectType-Correspondence-1
ObjectType-Commentary-2
ISSN:0028-4793
1533-4406
DOI:10.1056/NEJM199811053391914