Kei Kamide, MD; Shigeo Satoh, MD; Kazuyoshi Okamoto, MD; Takashi Ueda, MD; Hiroshi Katoh, MD; Susumu Nakano, MD; Osamu Katoh, MD; Tohru Kobayashi, MD; Hikaru Matsuda, MD; Nobuhiko Shibata, MD

Abstract
A 72-year-old man was admitted with palpitations caused by sustained ventricular tachycardia. He had been followed for 27 years, with admissions on 7 occasions, on account of ventricular tachycardias, atrial fibrillation, and congestive heart failure. Electrophysiologic examination detected 2 points of origin of ventricular tachycardia in the right and left ventricles. During the examination a myocardial infarction led to death. At autopsy, most areas of the right ventricle and the left ventricular apex were found to have been replaced by fatty tissue, pointing to severe fatty infiltration into the myocardium. Thus, this patient represented a unique cause of arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia (ARVD) with severe fatty degeneration causing progression of ARVD. It is important that a diagnosis of ARVD is made carefully and rigorously in elderly subjects.
(Jpn Circ J 1997; 61: 872-876)

Key Words: Arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia; Elderly subject; Long-term follow-up; Ventricular hypofunction

Mailing address: Nobuhiko Shibata, MD, Osaka Medical Center for Cancer and Cardiovascular Diseases, 1-3-3 Nakamichi, Higashinari, Osaka city 537, Japan