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

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

RT-175

The syndrome of right bundle branch block, ST segment elevation and sudden death: Nava-Martini or Brugada syndrome?

Bortolo Martini, Andrea Nava*, Sergio Cannas, Barbara Bauce*, Luisa Ruzza, Luciano Bassan, Michela Muriago*, Franco Naccarella**.
Unita Operative di Cardiologia, Ospedale di Thiene, *Universita di Padova, **Poliambulatorio Tiarini, Bologna, Italy

Abstract

The syndrome of sudden death associated with an ECG pattern of right bundle branch delay and ST segment alteration, better known as Brugada syndrome was firstly described in Italy by a group from the University of Padua.

The first patient with this syndrome was admitted to hospital because of ventricular fibrillation on 24 december 1980; the second one in 1984 and the third one in 1995.

The first published image of one of this pt with ventricular fibrillation and the syndrome appeared in 1986 in the “New trends in arrhythmias” but no details were given on the resting ECG.

Incomplete data were lately published on the “Giornale Italiano di Cardiologia” in 1986. The first detailed written description of the syndrome is documented in two abstract presented in Giornale Italiano di Cardiologia published in 1988.

Lately in 1988 the first (for what we know) ECG trace of the syndrome was published in “Mises a Jour Cardiologiques” (Fig. 1).

Fig. 1: This is the first published ECG trace in Medical literature⁵ of a pt resuscitated from sudden cardiac death, and admitted to Hospital in 1984 when 34. The pt is still alive under amiodarone therapy. He did have any relapse.

As a summary of the previous short communications, in 1989, the first complete description of the syndrome, was published in the American Heart Journal, three years before Brugada’ article, which was also preceeded by a paper from Aihara in 1990.

Key Words