Ventricular premature beats (VPBs)

A lady with Romano-Ward syndrome.

Long QT interval

• The QT interval normally varies with heart rate - becoming shorter at faster rates. It is usually corrected using the cycle length (R-R interval) as shown opposite.
• normal QTc = 0.42 seconds

Romano-Ward syndrome is an autosomal dominantly inherited form of long QT interval and there is a risk of recurrent ventricular tachycardia, particularly Torsade de Pointes.

Ventricular premature beats (VPBs)

• 2 ventricular premature beats are also shown in this ECG
• They are
  • broad
  • occur earlier than normal
  • and are followed by a full compensatory pause (the distance between the normal beats before and after the VPB is equal to twice the normal cycle length).