VENTRICULAR FIBRILLATION PRECIPITATED BY CARDIAC CATHETERIZATION

Abstract

We propose herein to report a case of ventricular fibrillation precipitated by cardiac catheterization, with complete recovery of the patient after forty-five minutes. REPORT OF CASE History.— E. F., a white woman aged 25, was admitted to the Cardiovascular Clinic Nov. 27, 1949 with complaints of dizzy spells and fainting of eight months' duration following pregnancy. Pulmonary tuberculosis was diagnosed in 1931, when she was 7 years of age, but was considered arrested after four years' treatment; for this reason the patient did not subsequently engage in any vigorous activities. In 1941, when she was 19, she was told that she had a heart murmur but that it was of no significance. There was no history of rheumatic fever. She stated that her pulse and blood pressure readings had always been difficult to obtain in her upper extremities but that she had been well until her first pregnancy, which terminated