Ventricular fibrillation during coronary angiography: the precatheterization QT interval

Ventricular fibrillation during coronary angiography is associated with contrast-induced changes in repolarization and thus pre-catheterization abnormalities could predispose to this event. We retrospectively examined angiograms, pre-catheterization electrocardiograms and records of 26 consecutive patients who had ventricular fibrillation during coronary angiography, and compared these patients to controls matched for age, sex, and left ventricular function. Diatrizoate meglumine was used as the angiographic contrast agent in all instances. Catheterization findings and the prevalence of prior myocardial infarction were similar in both groups. However, pre-catheterization QT intervals in the ventricular fibrillation group (0.43 +/- 0.05 sec) were significantly longer than in control patients (0.39 +/- 0.04 sec, P less than 0.005) as were their QT intervals corrected for heart rate (QTc) (0.47 +/- 0.04 vs 0.42 +/- 0.03 sec; P less than 0.001). Only seven of the 16 patients (44%) with ventricular fibrillation who had a precatheterization QTc greater than 0.44 sec had the arrhythmia during angiography of a critically stenosed (greater than 75%) coronary artery, whereas VF followed injection of critically stenosed vessels in eight of 10 (80%) of those with a normal QTc (p NS). After a follow-up period of 24 to 54 months (mean 39), two ventricular fibrillation patients have died (one suddenly), as compared to five in the control group (two suddenly) (p NS). Therefore, pre-catheterization QT prolongation was associated with ventricular fibrillation during coronary angiography, but ventricular fibrillation did not necessarily portend a worse long-term prognosis.