Apical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy and ventricular tachycardia.

Apical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy was originally reported from Japan as one of the subsets of hypertrophic cardiomyopathy without gradient, usually associated with deep T-wave inversion and a spade-like appearance of the left ventricle. Although many reports from Japan have indicated that these patients with apical hypertrophic cardiomyopathy are mostly asymptomatic and have relatively good prognosis, data on serious ventricular arrhythmias are not yet available. Present documentation of ventricular tachycardia in a patient with this disease suggests that at least some of such patients are also at risk of sudden death and that a systematic study for life-threatening arrhythmia by ambulatory electrocardiographic monitoring may be necessary in these cases.