A patient with ischaemic cardiomyopathy received a secondary prevention VVI implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) after an episode of sustained ventricular tachycardia (VT). Because of recurrent VTs transmitted via CareLink, medical therapy was optimized and VT ablation was performed. Subsequently, a fast VT with a typical short-long-short initiation developed. In addition, there was an increasing need for ventricular pacing due to sinus bradycardia. This new type of VT could be successfully dealt with by upgrading to DDD ICD and activating the Ventricular Rate Stabilization algorithm.
Keywords: CareLink; Heart failure; Rate control; Short–long–short sequence; Ventricular rate stabilization.