[Sudden death and tachycardiomyopathy in a young man with incessant tachycardia]

The case of a 19-year-old young man with clinical picture of congestive heart failure and supraventricular tachycardia is reported. Heart failure got better with conventional treatment, but the tachycardia persisted in spite of antiarrhythmic drugs. Echocardiogram showed dilated cardiomyopathy of important degree and the endomyocardial biopsy, mild interstitial infiltration. Scintigraphy with gallium 67 was normal. Twenty days after the patient leaving the hospital, suffered sudden death. It is discussed the hypothesis that patient had developed a tachycardiomyopathy secondary to the incessant tachycardia. The importance of the diagnosis is reinforced by possibility of reversion of the cardiomyopathy by the resection of the anomalous pathway.