Ventricular Tachycardia
Aka: Ventricular Tachycardia, Wide Complex Tachycardia

  1. See Also
    1. Guidelines for Emergency Cardiovascular Care
    2. Unstable Tachycardia
  2. Epidemiology
    1. Wide Complex Tachycardia in Children
      1. Presumptive Ventricular Tachycardia
    2. Wide Complex Tachycardia in Adults
      1. 75% of patients have Ventricular Tachycardia
      2. 90% of patients with CAD have VT
      3. Verapamil can cause significant problems if VT
    3. References
      1. Akhtar (1988) Ann Intern Med 109:905-912
  3. Management: Acute Wide Complex Tachycardia
    1. New emphasis on use of one Antiarrhythmic
      1. Contrast to prior Antiarrhythmic soups
      2. Pro-arrhythmic effects increase with poly-drugs
    2. See Ventricular Tachycardia Management in the Adult
    3. See Ventricular Tachycardia Management in the Child
  4. Management: Chronic recurrent Ventricular Tachycardia
    1. Implantable Defibrillator (ICD)
      1. Long term best option (much better than meds)
      2. Efficacy: 40-50% reduction in sudden death
      3. References
        1. (1997) N Engl J Med 337:1576
        2. Moss (1996) N Engl J Med 335:1933-40
    2. Maximize Coronary Artery Disease management
      1. Bigger (1997) N Engl J Med 337:1569-75
Tachycardia, Ventricular (C0042514)
Definition (MSH) An abnormally rapid ventricular rhythm usually in excess of 150 beats per minute. It is generated within the ventricle below the BUNDLE OF HIS, either as autonomic impulse formation or reentrant impulse conduction. Depending on the etiology, onset of ventricular tachycardia can be paroxysmal (sudden) or nonparoxysmal, its wide QRS complexes can be uniform or polymorphic, and the ventricular beating may be independent of the atrial beating (AV dissociation).
Definition (NCI) An abnormally rapid ventricular rhythm with aberrant ventricular excitation, usually in excess of 150 beats per minute.
Definition (NCI) A tachycardia arising distal to bundle of His, with a rate greater than 100 beats per minute.
Concepts Pathologic Function (T046)
ICD9 427.1
MSH D017180
English Tachycardia - ventric., TACHYCARDIA VENTRICULAR, Ventricular tachyarrhythmia, Ventricular tachycardia, Ventricular Tachycardias, Ventricular techycardia, VT, VT - Ventricular tachycardia
Spanish taquiarritmia ventricular, taquicardia ventricular
Parent Concepts cardiac arrhythmia (C0003811), Tachycardia (C0039231), Ventricular arrhythmia (C0085612), Tachyarrhythmia (C0080203), Duplicate concept (C1274013)
Sources COSTAR , CST, DXP, MSH, MTH, MTHICD9, NCI, NDFRT, SCTSPA, SNOMEDCT
Derived from the NIH UMLS (Unified Medical Language System)

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