Search
Question
55 year-old male presents with chest pain. You take a look at his cardiac function with ultrasound and here's the patient's apical four-chamber view. What's in his right ventricle and why would it be there?
Answer
- Automatic Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillator (AICD); Pacemaker could also be the answer as it is difficult to distinguish on ECHO.
- It was placed in this patient for primary prevention of VT/VF secondary to a chronically low left-ventricular ejection fraction.
AICD
- Placed for patients at risk for sudden cardiac death secondary to malignant arrhythmias (e.g., ventricular tachycardia / fibrillation)
- Shown to improve mortality for patients with severe left ventricular dysfunction (EF<30%) and has been shown to improve mortality (as in this case)
- Tricuspid regurgitation is caused by the intra-cardiac lead preventing complete closure of tricuspid valve leaflets.
References
Follow me on Twitter (@criticalcarenow) or Google+ (+criticalcarenow)