Wide Complex Tachycardia
The Patient: The details of this patient’s complaints and presentation are lost, but we know he was a 66-year-old man who was being treated in the Emergency Department. His rhythm went from sinus tachycardia with non-respiratory sinus arrhythmia to multi-focal atrial tachycardia (MAT) to wide-complex tachycardia. The WCT lasted a few minutes and spontaneously converted to an irregular sinus rhythm.
Wide-complex tachycardia: Ventricular tachycardia or aberrantly-conducted supraventricular tachycardia? When confronted with a wide-complex tachycardia, it can be very difficult to determine whether the rhythm is ventricular or supraventricular with aberrant conduction, such as bundle branch block. The patient’s history and presentation may offer clues. It is very important, if the patient’s hemodynamic status is at all compromised (they are “symptomatic”), the WCT should be treated as VENTRICULAR TACHYCARDIA until proven otherwise.
There have been many lists made of the ECG features that favor a diagnosis of ventricular tachycardia. Here are two such lists: Life In The Fast Lane, and National Institute of Health.
The ECG: This ECG shows a regular, fast, wide-QRS rhythm. The rate is 233 bpm. It had a sudden onset and sudden offset (not shown on this ECG), and the rhythm lasted about 3-5 minutes. The patient felt the change in rate, but did not become hypotensive or unstable. Some features that relate directly to the most commonly-referenced VT vs. SVT charts are: