14th International Congress
THE "NEW FRONTIERS"
OF ARRHYTHMIAS 2000

Jan. 29 - Feb. 5, 2000
Marilleva, Trento, Italy

RT-45

Congenital junctional ectopic tachycardia: clinical features, treatment and follow-up

Benito Musto, Berardo Sarubbi*, Valentino Ducceschi*, Antonio D’Onofrio, Ciro Cavallaro, Filippo Vecchione, Carmine Musto, Raffaele Calabro*.
*Division of Paediatric Cardiology, Second University of Naples, Monaldi Hospital, Division of Cardiology, Monaldi Hospital, Naples, Italy

Introduction

Junctional ectopic tachycardia (JET) is a rare supraventricular tachycardia presenting as a primary idiopathic arrhythmia¹ or more often as a transient phenomenon immediately after surgery for heart defects^2,3. Medical treatment is indicated in almost all the patients with congenital JET^1,4-6. Attempts at catheter and surgical ablation are reserved only for those patients with severe congestive heart failure irresponsive to medical management¹.

The purpose of our study is to examine retrospectively the clinical presentation and outcome of a cohort of 9 patients with congenital JET referred during a 20-year period time to a single Unit and all medically treated.

TABLE I

Patient

Sex

JET onset

HR at presentation

HR at discharge

Familiarity

Heart Failure

Decreased

Therapy
SF/EF

Follow-up

1

F

6 months

190

100

–

–

+

DG+PF

10.4 years

2

F

4 months

170

110

–

–

–

PF

3 years

3

F

6 months

240

170

+

+

+

DG+AM

8.4 years

4

F

2 months

170

120

+

–

–

AM+PF

4.1 years

5

M

5 months

170

110

–

–

–

PF

19.8 years

6

F

3 months

300

130

+

+

+

DG+AM+PF

14.7 years

7

M

2 months

270

130

+

+

+

DG+AM+PF

12.4 years

8

F

1 month

240

140

–

–

+

DG+AM+FL

8 months

9

F

6 months

300

120

+

+

+

DG+AM+FL

6.4 years