Polymorphic Ventricular Tachycardia

Abstract

It was way back in late 1980s when I was doing my thesis work for Internal Medicine postgraduation that Prof. Ashokan Nambiar, my mentor, told me about polymorphic ventricular tachycardia with QT prolongation, better known as Torsades des Pointes. I was also given the opportunity to present four cases of Torsades des Pointes collected over 10 years for the State Conference of Cardiological Society of India. Those were the days when we did not have access Holter monitoring, leave alone implantable cardiac monitors, to document intermittent arrhythmia. In those days awareness about the arrhythmia was very low, unlike in current era when every resident in the Emergency Department is aware of polymorphic ventricular tachycardia.