Tachycardia-induced Cardiomyopathy In Children: A Report Of26Cases

Objectives To investigate clinical features,diagnosis,therapy andoutcomes of tachycardia-induced cardiomyopathy(TIC) in children.MethodsReferred to the medical records of26children hospi-talized with TIC in the First Hospital of Jilin University from January2007to March2015. Clinical manifestations,au-xiliary examinations, treatment and follow-up were retrospectively analyzed.Results（1）Among26cases with TIC,there were14infants,2toddlers,6pre-school age children, one school-age and3adoles-cent patients.（2）19cases were males and7cases were females,witha ratio of2.7:1.（3）Infants came to hospital mainly because of poor appetite,edema,respiratory distress and crying,ten infants were complicated with heart failure (38.5%).The complaints for todd-lers were circumoral cyanosis,dysphoria,with one case of heart failu-re(3.8%),and for preschool and school children were lack of stren-gth,arrhythmia, precordial discomfort,with one case of heart failure in preschool age.Adolescence complained of chest congestion and lack of strength,with no cases of heart failure.（4）Arrhythmia types were asfollows:17cases (65.4%)of atrial tachycardia(distributed in each age group);3cases (11.5%)of paroxysmal supraventriculartachycardia (2 in infancy,1in adolescence);3cases(11.5%) of ve-ntricular tachycardia (2in infancy,1in adolescence);2cases (7.7%)of atrial flutter(all in infancy);one case (3.8%)of atrial fibrillation in infancy.（5）Afterthe treatment of anti-arrhythmic drugs, sinus rhythm was restored in17patients and ventricular rate was controll-ed in6patients.Threepatients received radiofrequency ablation aft-er admission immediately. Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and left ventricular diastolic diameter (LVDD) measured bycardiac ultrasonography were significantly improved after treatment(P<0.01).（6）In the follow-up, one patient relapsed and then received radiof-requency ablation and got cured.ConclusionsThe highest age stage of TIC was infancy. Malepatients were more than females. The most common type of arrhyt-hmia was atrial tachycardia. Compared with older children,infants hadmore severe symtoms but recoverred faster and relapsed less. Generally drug therapy is preferred in the treatment of TIC except for older children and those refractory to drug therapy who could receive radiofrequency ablation.