Torsades de pointes historical perspective

Editor-In-Chief: C. Michael Gibson, M.S., M.D. [1]

The term “torsade de pointes” was first described by Dessertenne in 1966, based on the characteristic “twisting” pattern of ventricular tachycardia seen on EKG.

• It was first described by Dessertenne in 1966^[1] and refers to a specific variety of ventricular tachycardia that exhibits distinct characteristics on the electrocardiogram (ECG).

• The French term is largely due to the fact that the phenomenon was originally described in a French medical journal by Dessertenne in 1966, when he observed this rhythm disorder in an 80-year-old female patient with complete intermittent atrioventricular block.

• There has been much debate in the Circulation journal among French and American scientist whether one should write Torsades de Pointes or Torsade de Pointes.

• As for now Torsade is prefered (unless one sees rotations around more than one axis in one episode), but both forms are used in similar frequency.^[2]