The arrhythmias in consulting practice - abstract

ABSTRACT

An investigation was made of the incidence and aetiology of the arrhythmias in a private consulting practice. The case histories and ECGs of all cases referred for a cardiac consultation in the last six years were examined. Of 1,800 cases, 575 cases had normal ECG's, 774 had abnormalities of the ECG other than arrhythmias and 451 presented arrhythmias of whom 36 showed more than one type. The arrhythmias were as follows - Sinus tachycardia 135 cases, Sinus bradycardia 5, Sinus arrhythmia 29, sinus arrest 1, coronary sinus rhythm 1, supra-ventricular premature beats 46, ventricular premature beats 118, paroxysmal atrial tachycardia 3, paroxysmal ventricular tachycardia 1, atrial flutter 5, flutter fibrillation 8, Atrial fibrillation 37, Sino-auricular block 1, atrio-ventricular block 42, right bundle branch block 40 left bundle branch block 11, Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome 5. Approximately 20 percent of the arrhythmias were due to ischaemic heart disease and of all the cases of ischaemic heart disease seen, approximately 20 percent showed an arrhythmia. Of 29 cases of sinus arrhythmia 21 were older than 15 and 14 older than 20. 4.4 percent of cases of sinus tachycardia were due to alcoholism. In both the group of ventricular premature beats and the group of supra-ventricular premature beats about 1/3 showed no other evidence of heart disease and about 1/4 showed evidence of ischaemic heart disease. On of the five cases of atrial flutter and one of the eight cases of flutter fibrillation had artificial mitral valves. Of six cases of acquired heart block, the youngest was 59 years of age (AU)