Abstract
The denomination torsade de pointes is used to describe a type of ventricular arrhythmia which has been widely recognized for only about ten years, although preliminary descriptions of this disorder were actually reported several decades ago [1]. Until recently, however, attempts to define this rhythm disturbance remained few and incomplete: the abnormality was not clearly distinguished from other kinds of ventricular arrhythmia, and this confusion was reflected by the many different names given to the disorder. They included ventricular pseudofibrillation, transient ventricular fibrillation, multifocal, chaotic or prefibrillatory ventricular tachycardia, and cardiac ballet [1–3]. The first to suggest the term torsade de pointes was Dessertenne [4]. Since then, a large number of reports have been published about torsade de pointes; they particularly deal with etiological factors and treatment.
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© 1981 Martinus Nijhoff Publishers, The Hague
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Touboul, P. (1981). Torsade De Pointes. In: Wellens, H.J.J., Kulbertus, H.E. (eds) What’s New in Electrocardiography. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-8239-0_13
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-009-8239-0_13
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