FascicularVentricular Tachycardia (VT) is a uniqueclinical syndrome, rarelyencountered by physicians.It isalso known as BelhassenSyndrome, named after a physician who reported the case in 1981. The condition,accounts for 10-15% of total idiopathic VTand the rhythm is sensitive tocalcium channel blocker. First described in 1979, the diagnosis of thissyndromeremains challenging,as the electrocardiogram (ECG) changes may be incorrectly diagnosed as Supraventricular Tachycardia (SVT) with aberrant conductions. We describeda patient whopresented to Emergency Department with palpitation. The difficulty in diagnosis and management is illustrated in the reportas he was initially misdiagnosed as SVT with resistance to initial standard treatment.This case report alsodescribedwide complex tachycardia algorithms to assist physician in daily clinicalpractice. Therapeutic options inmanaging this rare syndrome werealso discussed.
Cardio-pulmonary Resuscitation (CPR) is important and should be mastered by House Officers (HO). House officers who have just completed their studies are assigned to acute medical and surgical wards. If a patient in the ward has a cardiac arrest (CA), these doctors are usually the first to attend. Therefore an HO must be confident with CPR skills. They must be competent in performing CPR. The authors assessed 26 new HOs from Universiti Kebangsaan Malaysia Hospital (HUKM) with respect to their self-perception about CPR skills, confidence level in performing CPR and knowledge in performing CPR. Knowledge was assessed by a questionnaire. We found that 16 of 26 (61.5%) assessed themselves to have inadequate knowledge and 46.2% had no confidence in performing CPR. The mean score of the written test was 5.7 ± 1.8. Seven out of 26 (27.0%) HOs had incorrect hand placement position for CPR. Only 4 and 9 out of 26 HOs had their sternal paddle and cardiac apex paddle positions correctly placed respectively. In conclusion, knowledge, perception of skills and confidence levels of HOs on CPR are inadequate and need further assessment and improvement. Medical schools need to review their CPR curriculum in order to prepare HOs adequately to work in emergency situations.