Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Mar 26, 2020; 8(6): 1129-1136
Published online Mar 26, 2020. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v8.i6.1129
Successful treatment of systemic sclerosis complicated by ventricular tachycardia with a cardiac resynchronization therapy-defibrillator: A case report
Yuan-Yuan Chen, Hui Yan, Jian-Hua Zhu
Yuan-Yuan Chen, Hui Yan, Jian-Hua Zhu, Department of Cardiology, The First Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Hangzhou 310003, Zhejiang Province, China
Author contributions: Chen YY collected the patient’s clinical data and drafted the manuscript; Yan H and Zhu JH provided supervision and critical revision of the manuscript.
Informed consent statement: Written informed consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest regarding the publication of this paper.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Jian-Hua Zhu, MD, Chief Doctor, Department of Cardiology, The First Affiliated Hospital, School of Medicine, Zhejiang University, Qingchun Road, No. 79, Hangzhou 310003, Zhejiang Province, China. 1183039@zju.edu.cn
Received: December 11, 2019
Peer-review started: December 11, 2019
First decision: January 17, 2020
Revised: January 30, 2020
Accepted: March 11, 2020
Article in press: March 21, 2020
Published online: March 26, 2020
Processing time: 105 Days and 10.8 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND

Systemic sclerosis is a rare connective tissue disease characterized by localized or diffuse skin thickening and fibrosis, which usually accumulates in various organs throughout the body. Tachyarrhythmia is a common clinical manifestation of cardiovascular damage in systemic sclerosis patients. However, few studies have reported the use of catheter ablation and an implantable cardioverter defibrillator in patients with systemic sclerosis complicated by ventricular tachycardia.

CASE SUMMARY

A 39-year woman with an 11-year history of systemic sclerosis was referred to our hospital due to three syncopal episodes in the past 6 mo. The results of an electrocardiogram and a transthoracic echocardiogram revealed ventricular tachycardia and left ventricular systolic and ventricular septum segmental motion abnormalities, respectively. The results of an electrocardiogram showed a sinus rhythm with complete blockage of the left bundle branch. In light of the progressive nature of systemic sclerosis, the presence of a left bundle branch block, and the decreased ejection fraction, a cardiac resynchronization therapy-defibrillator was implanted. The patient’s clinical conditions improved, and at the 3-mo follow-up, the patient was free of ventricular tachycardia and all cardiac symptoms.

CONCLUSION

We report the first case of systemic sclerosis complicated by ventricular tachycardia that was successfully treated with a cardiac resynchronization therapy-defibrillator.

Keywords: Systemic sclerosis; Ventricular tachycardia; Cardiac resynchronization therapy-defibrillator; Case report

Core tip: Systemic sclerosis, a rare connective tissue disease, associates with various cardiovascular diseases. Tachyarrhythmia is a common clinical manifestation of cardiovascular damage in systemic sclerosis patients, and the occurrence of ventricular abnormalities is closely correlated with death. We report the first successful case of cardiac resynchronization therapy-defibrillator implantation in a patient with systemic sclerosis complicated by ventricular tachycardia.