| Abstract: | ![]()
In a 52-year-old man with acute coronary thrombosis, and an ectopic ventricular tachycardia which lasted two days, the terminal cardiac mechanism was bradycardia and ventricular standstill. The heart continued to be electrically active for twenty-eight minutes after the patient appeared to be dead. The tachycardia was ended by a long postundulatory pause; thereafter the ventricular rate was variable and auricular contractions were absent until the heart stopped completely. It is very likely that in such patients ventricular standstill is the mechanism of the dying heart as frequently as ventricular fibrillation. |
