Abstract
Cardiomyopathy is a heterogeneous group of diseases of heart muscle accompanied with impaired cardiac function. Tachycardia-induced cardiomyopathy (TIC) is caused by prolonged tachycardia leading to dilatation and systolic dysfunction with clinical manifestation of heart failure.
This state is reversible after normalization of heart rate. The diagnosis is usually made retrospectively after normalization of heart rate and recovery of left ventricular function (LVF).
More than 100 years after the first documented case (described in 1913 in a young patient with atrial fibrillation and symptoms of heart failure [25]) is still limited knowledge of pathophysiological mechanisms. The most common arrhythmias responsible for the TIC include atrial fibrillation [1,2], atrial flutter [3], incessant supraventricular tachycardia [4], ventricular tachycardia (VT) [5] and frequent ventricular extrasystoles (VES) [6].
TIC detection and therapeutic intervention is crucial considering potential reversibility of tachycardia. Current options of treatment involve drug therapy and surgical or catheter ablation.