Premature ventricular beats initiate recurrent ventricular fibrillation in early repolarization syndrome

Abstract

An early repolarization (ER) pattern on electrocardiography was historically considered a benign finding; however, this finding in the inferior and lateral leads has recently been associated with idiopathic ventricular fibrillation (VF). Here we describe a case of a 29-year-old man with an ER pattern, who experienced recurrent implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) shocks for ventricular tachycardia (VT) and VF. An ICD interrogation demonstrated how VF and VT were repeatedly initiated by closely coupled premature ventricular beats.

Keywords

• Early repolarization
• Idiopathic ventricular fibrillation (VF)
• Implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD)
• Premature ventricular beat