Chest
Volume 97, Issue 1, January 1990, Pages 103-105
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Clinical Investigations
Echocardiographic Observations in Survivors of Acute Electrical Injury

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This report describes for the first time (to our knowledge) persistent left ventricular dysfunction in survivors of electrical injury. Two young men who were resuscitated following electrocution by high tension wires underwent echocardiographic examination after injury. Early studies demonstrated wall motion abnormalities with no to only partial recovery on follow-up. In contrast to a previous report of totally reversible left ventricular dysfunction in a similar setting, these cases suggest that the degree of permanent dysfunction following electrical injury is variable.

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CASE REPORTS

case 1

A 25-year-old previously well man lost consciousness when he touched an electrical wire. At least ten minutes elapsed before cardiopulmonary resuscitation (CPR) was initiated. On arrival at the hospital he was successfully defibrillated after several DC countershocks but he never regained consciousness. Although physical examination subsequently revealed stable vital signs and normal results of cardiac examination, findings from neurologic examination and diagnostic testing were

DISCUSSION

There is little information available concerning the cardiac sequelae in survivors of electrical shock. Electrocardiographic patterns typical of acute myocardial infarction have been reported immediately after resuscitation,1, 2, 3, 4, 5 but it has been suggested that in long-term survivors these resolve completely.1, 2, 3, 4 To our knowledge, only one previous report has provided any direct information concerning cardiac function in such patients.3 Lewin et al3 reported the noninvasive cardiac

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

The authors wish to thank Dr. Marc Schoenfeld, who coordinated case 1, and Dr. Jim Southern, who provided the interpretation of the autopsy data on case 2.

REFERENCES (6)

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Supported in part by National Institutes of Health Training Grant No. ROI-HL07535-4.

Manuscript received June 12; revision accepted July 31.

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