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Heart Disease (Expert Forum)
ventricular tachycardia in a young person
Answered by
Cleveland Clinic - Heart
Cleveland - OH
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ventricular tachycardia in a young person
by coffeeclimber, Jun 29, 2009 12:05PM
I'm only 23 and an athlete, and I have been waking up many nights with a very fast heartbeat, sometimes causing me to pass out. I had an ablation done once, and for a while I felt better. Tomorrow I have to get another ablation/ EP study. I am just wondering, what kind of things could cause VT in a young person with no other health problems except being born with hearing loss, and a young person who is an endurance athlete? Thanks
Doctor's Answer
by Cleveland Clinic, Jul 04, 2009 09:49PM
, Jul 04, 2009 09:49PM
There are many people with VT and structurally normal hearts. These usually have origin from the right ventricular outflow tract or from the LV apex or from the ventricular conduction system. The important thing about these is that generally they are not considered to be malignant and not associated with increase risk of sudden cardiac death.
VT in patients with scar from either heart attacks or from other causes of cardiomyopathy is a marker of poor prognosis however.
It sounds as if you fall in the first category. There is a congenital abnormality called the Jervel-Lange Nielsen syndrome which is associated with a long QT syndrome and causes polymorphic VT and sudden cardiac death. If this is the case then VT/VF ablation may be attempted, but generally it requires the implantation of an ICD.
VT in patients with scar from either heart attacks or from other causes of cardiomyopathy is a marker of poor prognosis however.
It sounds as if you fall in the first category. There is a congenital abnormality called the Jervel-Lange Nielsen syndrome which is associated with a long QT syndrome and causes polymorphic VT and sudden cardiac death. If this is the case then VT/VF ablation may be attempted, but generally it requires the implantation of an ICD.
Member Comments (4)
by Nicolina87, Jun 29, 2009 04:47PM
To: coffeeclimber
Was the ablation specifically performed because you had ventricular tachycardia? From my understanding this is either caused by an accessory pathway in the heart that fires on it's own or an enlarged/diseased left ventricle.
by Nicolina87, Jun 29, 2009 04:49PM
To: coffeeclimber
Oh it also depends if it is sustained or not. If the VT is less than 30 seconds and self terminating it could be benign and not cause by any actual heart problems. It seems though that you have experienced this many times.
by coffeeclimber, Jul 05, 2009 12:11AM
Actually we found out during the EP study that it was AV nodal reentrant tachycardia, so they did another ablation. They only found a slow pathway the first time, this time they found it all-hopefully! No more passing out at night, yay!
