Exercise-induced ventricular tachycardia associated with J point ST-segment elevation in inferior leads in a patient without apparent heart disease: a variant form of Brugada syndrome?

Exercise-induced monomorphic ventricular tachycardia originating in the right ventricular outflow tract without evidence of structural heart disease can be idiopathic or can be the harbinger of structural abnormalities such as arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia. Recently, the so-called variant Brugada syndrome has been reported in very few cases in the literature and is much less electrophysiologically defined in terms of its clinical significance. We present the case of a 21-year-old man with exercise-induced monomorphic ventricular tachycardia (left bundle-branch block/right axis deviation), without detectable structural heart disease, with evidence of J point and ST-segment elevation in electrocardiogram leads II, III, and aVF after intravenous administration of propafenone. This is followed by a brief discussion on the new concept of “variant Brugada syndrome,” drug-induced electrocardiographic changes, normal-variant repolarization abnormality, and idiopathic right ventricular outflow tract tachycardia.