Critical Slow Conduction Zone Located between the Tricuspid Annulus and a Myocardial Infarct Scar in a Patient with Multiple Ventricular Tachycardia Late after Myocardial Infarction

Abstract

A patient underwent an electrophysiological study (EPS) and catheter ablation (CA) for ventricular tachycardia (VT) that developed 11 years after myocardial infarction.

Entrainment mapping (EM) of the left ventricle did not identify the origin of the VT during induction. Electro-anatomical mapping revealed a low voltage area from the anterior to the inferior left ventricular wall. Another EPS was performed for right ventricular mapping.

A basket catheter was placed in the right ventricle to evaluate impulse propagation and we attempted to identify the VT circuit with EM during the same VT (complete left bundle branch block configuration, inferior axis) as the previous EPS.

Eight different VT appeared, three of which were sustained during CA. The reentry circuit exit was identified on the tricuspid annulus (TA) at the 9:00 site and radiofrequency (RF) ablation was performed, but the axis transformed from the inferior to the superior and another VT appeared. Despite RF ablation to the VT circuit exit at the 5:00 site, another sustained VT appeared. Finally, it was terminated by ablation to a critical slow conduction zone (SCZ) located near the 7:00 site one year later. Electro-anatomical voltage mapping detected a critical isthmus between TA and right ventricle infarct scar.

Here, we describe a rare SCZ proximal to the TA in a patient with VT late after myocardial infarction.