tachycardia/cardimyopathy

Posted By  CCF CARDIO MD - MTR on March 24, 1998 at 16:47:23:

In Reply to: tachycardia/cardimyopathy posted by Jamie on March 18, 1998 at 18:50:27:

: I just had a successful ablation done. I have had palpatations for years
  and this past year I have had progressively worse ones during and after
  pregnancy. I read somewhere that arrhythmias could cause CM/CHF. How common
  is that? Also does that help prognosis of DCM because the underlying
  cause has been fixed? Thank You for your time and energy.

[CCF Cardio MD - MTR]

_
Dear Jamie, thank you for your question.  You are correct in saying that chronic
fast arrhythymias (tachycardias) can cause dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) which
manifests clinically as congestive heart failure (CHF).  In rare situations, a
prolonged tachycardia can cause DCM but incidence rates are hard to find in the
medical literature.  It is well known that in animals, if the heart rate is increased
chronically via a pacemaker, DCM and CHF develops after a few months but is reversible
if the normal heart rhythym is restored.  We don't have good information with humans about
the duration of tachycardia necessary to induce DCM, the absolute heart rate at which this
happens, the types of tachycardias that can cause it, and whether underlying conditions
are associated with the development of DCM with tachycardia.  In your case, it sounds like
your arrhythymia was successfully fixed via radiofrequency ablation so I presume you
had SVT (supraventricular tachycardia) from the top of the heart - atria.  Since your
SVT sounded like it was intermittent and never prolonged, you were at low-risk for
developing DCM and now that it's fixed, that should not be an issue for you anymore.  You
may have had an ultrasound of the heart done earlier (called an echocardiogram) to assess
the heart function and this test would have definitely excluded DCM.  Perhaps you could
check with your cardiologist about that test.  I hope this information helps.
Information provided in the heart forum is for general purposes only.  Specific diagnoses
and therapies can only be provided by your physician.