Electrophysiological features of atrial flutter in cardiac sarcoidosis: a report of two cases

Abstract

We report two cases of systemic sarcoidosis with atrial flutter as the clinical manifestation. In one patient, who had symptoms of shorter duration, the arrhythmia was no longer inducible after a course of glucocorticoid therapy. Electroanatomical mapping in the other case revealed patchy fibrosis of the left atrial myocardium and multiple macro-reentrant circuits. Sinus rhythm could be restored with ablation of these reentrant circuits. To our knowledge, this is the first report on the demonstration of atrial scarring in a patient with sarcoidosis using 3-D electroanatomical mapping. These two cases illustrate that the inflammation of atrial myocardium is the primary mechanism of atrial arrhythmias in patients with cardiac sarcoidosis.