Near fatal arrhythmia induction by an implantable cardioverter defibrillator.

Sudden death among implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) recipients is well known. The underlying mechanism remains unclear in most cases. One possible mechanism is an accidentally induced arrhythmia by the ICD itself. This report describes for the first time a case of a life-threatening ventricular arrhythmia induced by a specific algorithm for ventricular arrhythmia reconfirmation before shock delivery in a fourth-generation ICD.