1/19. Wide QRS complex tachycardia: ECG differential diagnosis.Wide QRS complex tachycardias (WCT) present significant diagnostic and therapeutic challenges to the emergency physician. WCT may represent a supraventricular tachycardia with aberrant ventricular conduction; alternatively, such a rhythm presentation may be caused by ventricular tachycardia. Other clinical syndromes may also demonstrate WCT, such as tricyclic antidepressant toxicity and hyperkalemia. Patient age and history may assist in rhythm diagnosis, especially when coupled with electrocardiographic (ECG) evidence. Numerous ECG features have been suggested as potential clues to origin of the WCT, including ventricular rate, frontal axis, QRS complex width, and QRS morphology, as well as the presence of other characteristics such as atrioventricular dissociation and fusion/capture beats. Differentiation between ventricular tachycardia and supraventricular tachycardia with aberrant conduction frequently is difficult despite this clinical and electrocardiographic information, particularly in the early stages of evaluation with an unstable patient. When the rhythm diagnosis is in question, resuscitative therapy should be directed toward ventricular tachycardia.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = physician (Clic here for more details about this article) |
2/19. Termination of acute wide QRS complex atrial fibrillation with ibutilide.Ibutilide is a Vaughan-Williams class III antiarrhythmic agent approved for chemical cardioversion of acute onset atrial fibrillation/flutter. Emergency physicians rarely use ibutilide despite its proven clinical value. We report a case of successful chemical cardioversion using ibutilide in a patient with atrial fibrillation and delayed ventricular depolarization (wide QRS complex). We recommend that ibutilide be considered for wider use in the emergency department and that further studies be conducted.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = physician (Clic here for more details about this article) |
3/19. Of pills and pillows: pseudopigmentation in a patient taking amiodarone.Blue discoloration of the skin can alarm patients and physicians alike. Blue coloring may, however, have a trivial and easily correctable cause, as is shown in the following case.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = physician (Clic here for more details about this article) |
4/19. warfarin therapy for an octogenarian who has atrial fibrillation.In north america, atrial fibrillation is associated with at least 75 000 ischemic strokes each year. Most of these strokes occur in patients older than 75 years of age. The high incidence of stroke in very elderly persons reflects the increasing prevalence of atrial fibrillation that occurs with advanced age, the high incidence of stroke in elderly patients, and the failure of physicians to prescribe antithrombotic therapy in most of these patients. This failure is related to the increased risk for major hemorrhage with advanced age, obfuscating the decision to institute stroke prophylaxis with antithrombotic therapy.This case-based review describes the risk and benefits of prescribing antithrombotic therapy for a hypothetical 80-year-old man who has atrial fibrillation and hypertension, and it offers practical advice on managing warfarin therapy. After concluding that the benefits of warfarin outweigh its risks in this patient, we describe how to initiate warfarin therapy cautiously and how to monitor and dose the drug. We then review five recent randomized, controlled trials that document the increased risk for stroke when an international normalized ratio (INR) of less than 2.0 is targeted among patients with atrial fibrillation. Next, we make the case that cardioversion is not needed for this asymptomatic patient with chronic atrial fibrillation. Instead, we choose to leave the patient in atrial fibrillation and to control his ventricular rate with atenolol. Later, when the INR increases to 4.9, we advocate withholding one dose of warfarin and repeating the INR test. Finally, when the patient develops dental pain, we review the analgesic agents that are safe to take with warfarin and explain why warfarin therapy does not have to be interrupted during a subsequent dental extraction.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = physician (Clic here for more details about this article) |
5/19. Fulminant pneumonia due to aeromonas hydrophila in a man with chronic renal failure and liver cirrhosis.A 40-year-old man on hemodialysis was admitted due to dyspnea and chest pain and was diagnosed with pneumonia and pericarditis. ampicillin was administered, but thereafter severe septic shock developed. The fulminant type of pneumonia progressed rapidly, and he died only 48 hours after the onset of symptoms. The autopsy and sputa culture revealed pneumonia due to aeromonas hydrophila. The source of this infection remained unkown. Interestingly, there were two types of A. hydrophila found during such a short period. The physician should suspect this disease by questioning the patient's history. Early treatment with adequate antibiotics is the only means of saving such a patient's life.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = physician (Clic here for more details about this article) |
6/19. Echocardiographic evolution of left ventricular and left atrial thrombi in a patient with left ventricular dysfunction due to alcoholic cardiomyopathy, chronic atrial fibrillation and multiple non-fatal systemic embolisms.The echocardiographic characteristics and evolution of multiple pedunculated left atrial and left ventricular intracavitary thrombi in a patient with alcoholic cardiomyopathy are reported. The patient had a long history of left ventricular dysfunction and atrial fibrillation but the referring physician had not prescribed anticoagulant prophylaxis. Multiple, non-fatal, systemic embolizations occurred during hospitalization and echocardiography was used to monitor the effect of the anticoagulant therapy on the remodelling and final dissolution of intracavitary thrombi.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = physician (Clic here for more details about this article) |
7/19. Atrial infarction: a neglected electrocardiographic sign with important clinical implications.A case of atrial infarction in the setting of an acute infero-posterolateral and right ventricular myocardial infarction is reported. Although often only a subtle ECG sign, this finding must make the physician aware of possible complications, such as arrhythmias (atrial fibrillation, sinus bradycardia, and AV conduction disturbances), pump failure of the right and left ventricle, atrial wall rupture, and thromboembolization.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = physician (Clic here for more details about this article) |
8/19. Total pulmonary vein occlusion as a consequence of catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation mimicking primary lung disease.INTRODUCTION: catheter ablation has recently been used for curative treatment of atrial fibrillation. methods AND RESULTS: Three of 239 patients who underwent ablation close to the pulmonary vein (PV) ostia at our institute developed severe hemoptysis, dyspnea, and pneumonia as early as 1 week and as late as 6 months after the ablation. Because the patients were arrhythmia-free, the treating physician initially attributed the symptoms to new-onset pulmonary disease (e.g., bronchopulmonary neoplasm). After absent PV flow was confirmed by transesophageal echocardiography, transseptal contrast injection depicted a totally occluded PV in all three patients. Successful recanalization, even in chronically occluded Pvs, was performed in all patients. During follow-up, Doppler flow measurements by transesophageal echocardiography demonstrated restenosis in all primarily dilated PV, which led to stent implantation. CONCLUSION: PV stenosis/occlusion after catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation occurs in a subset of patients. However, because in-stent restenosis occurred in two patients after 6 to 10 weeks, final interventional strategy for PV stenosis or occlusion remains unclear. To prevent future PV stenosis or occlusion, a decrease in target temperature and energy of radiofrequency current or the use of new energy sources (ultrasound, cryothermia, microwave) seems necessary.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = physician (Clic here for more details about this article) |
9/19. Asymptomatic malposition of a pacing lead in the left ventricle: the case of a woman untreated with anticoagulant therapy for eight years.We report the case of a woman with a low-rate atrial fibrillation and a wire lead inadvertently inserted in the left ventricle through an ostium secundum defect. The malposition of the lead was diagnosed 8 years after the procedure on the basis of the presence of a right bundle branch block pattern of the paced QRS, at echocardiography and at chest X-ray. The patient, who was neither on antiaggregant nor anticoagulant therapy, was asymptomatic. Biventricular pacing is a useful tool in the therapy of patients with severe chronic heart failure and intraventricular conduction delay but the insertion of the lead in the left ventricle through the coronary sinus is not always feasible. Because a patent foramen ovale is a frequent occurrence in the adult population, we suggest that in case of an unsuccessful catheterization of the coronary sinus, the physician should search for a patent foramen ovale through which to introduce the wire lead into the left ventricle, especially if the patient is already receiving anticoagulant therapy.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = physician (Clic here for more details about this article) |
10/19. atrial fibrillation in an adolescent--the agony of ecstasy.Ecstasy (MDMA), a popular drug of abuse among teenagers, is thought to be "relatively" safe. A case of atrial fibrillation following the ingestion of ecstasy in a previously well adolescent is presented. Emergency room physicians should consider ecstasy abuse in the differential diagnosis of young patients presenting with atrial fibrillation.- - - - - - - - - - ranking = 1keywords = physician (Clic here for more details about this article) |
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