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Lee, Ham, Lee, Roh, Yu, and Chung: Early Repolarization Syndrome with Idiopathic Ventricular Fibrillation
Case Report

The Ewha Medical Journal 2014; 37(2): 112-115.

Published online: 30 September 2014

DOI: https://doi.org/10.12771/emj.2014.37.2.112

Early Repolarization Syndrome with Idiopathic Ventricular Fibrillation

Jung-Eun Lee, Hyo-Ju Ham, Kwan-Yong Lee, Ji-Woong Roh, Jin-Sok Yu, Woo-Baek Chung

Division of Cardiology, Department of Internal Medicine, Yeouido St. Mary's Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.

Corresponding author: Woo-Baek Chung. Department of Internal Medicine, Yeouido St. Mary's Hospital, The Catholic University of Korea College of Medicine, 10 Yuksam-ro, Yeongdeungpo-gu, Seoul 150-713, Korea. Tel: 82-2-3779-1325, Fax: 82-2-780-3132, peace816@catholic.ac.kr

Received 12 December 2013       Accepted 24 February 2014

Copyright © 2014. Ewha Womans University School of Medicine

(open-access):

This is an Open Access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/3.0/) which permits unrestricted non-commercial use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.

Abstract

Early repolarization is a common electrocardiographic (ECG) feature found in young adults, men and athletes, and has been considered to be a benign feature for the last several decades. But recent studies suggest that early repolarization may be related to idiopathic ventricular fibrillation and sudden cardiac death. We report a young man, 35 years old, who had life threatening ventricular fibrillation and sudden cardiac arrest. He was evaluated for cardiac causes of ventricular fibrillation. There was no explanation other than that his ECG showed an early repolarization pattern so we treated him with implantable cardioverter defibrillator. Thus, we suggest that early repolarization may be related with life threatening ventricular arrhythmia.

Keywords: Early repolarization, J wave syndrome, Ventricular fibrillation

Figures and Tables

Fig. 1
Electrocardiography monitoring upon patient arrival. Ventricular fibrillation is observed during.
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Fig. 2
Flelctrocardiogram. J point elevation (early repolarization pattern) with QRS notching is observed in inferior lead II, III, aVF, lateral lead I and precordial lead V4-6.
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Fig. 3
Electrocardiography. Osborn wave is observed in inferior lead II, III, aVF.
emj-37-112-g003

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