Source
Cardiovascular Division, Department of Medicine, Hospital of the University of Pennsylvania, Philadelphia, PA, USA.
Abstract
PURPOSE:
To identify the prevalence of adrenergically mediated ventricular premature depolarizations (VPDs) and characterize their electrocardiographic (ECG) features and specific anatomically determined sites of origin within the ventricles.
METHODS:
VPDs occurring during incremental isoproterenol infusion (3 to 20 mug/min) in 108 patients (30 women, mean age 58 +/- 10 years) with normal ventricular function and no previous ventricular tachycardia (VT) were identified. VPDs were grouped to a probable anatomic region of origin based on 12-lead ECG.
RESULTS:
The 235 VPD morphologies (median 2 per patient, range 1-13) were observed in 85/108 (79%) patients. The most frequent regions of origin were: peri-mitral annulus 17%, left-Purkinje network 14%, right ventricle (RV) outflow tract 14%, apical RV free wall 11% and peri-tricuspid annulus 10%. Only 39 (17%) VPDs were not easily classified.
CONCLUSION:
Adrenergically mediated VPDs are frequent in patients without structural heart disease or VT and tend to originate from a few anatomic sites.