EKG Myth - Ventricular tachycardia must have concordance

This is part of a series of posts detailing common electrocardiogram myths.


Myth: Ventricular Tachycardia must have precordial concordance

When differentiating a regular, wide-complex tachycardia some will look for precordial concordance to rule-in, or more importantly to rule-out ventricular tachycardia.

The absence of precordial concordance is not a reliable method of ruling out ventricular tachycardia:

Although the specificity of concordance for VT is high (>90%), the sensitivity is low (~20%)¹.

It is generally thought that positive concordance indicates a posteriobasal left ventricular origin and negative concordance indicates an anterioapical left ventricular origin. However, in the case of positive concordance, SVT with a left-posterior accessory pathway is a known cause.

Until recently, negative concordance has been thought to be "virtually diagnostic" of ventricular tachycardia². Multiple case reports have shown that certain configurations of accessory pathways can also cause negative concordance^3,4,5.

The key takeaway is while this criteria is a useful tool to rule-in ventricular tachycardia (i.e. high specificity), it is not a useful tool to rule-out ventricular tachycardia (i.e. low sensitivity).

Ventricular tachycardia without precordial concordance⁶.

Ventricular tachycardia without precordial concordance. (c) 2011 EMS 12-Lead Blog.

WPW and Atrial flutter with positive concordance⁷.

While positive or negative concordance may strongly suggest ventricular tachycardia, providers should not rule-out ventricular tachycardia in its absence.

1. Pellegrini CN, Scheinman MM. Clinical management of ventricular tachycardia. Curr Probl Cardiol. 2010; 35(9):453-504. [PubMed]
2. Goldberger ZD, Rho RW, Page RL. Approach to the Diagnosis and Initial Management of the Stable Adult Patient With a Wide Complex Tachycardia. Am J Cardiol. 2008; 101:1456-1466. [Full Text]
3. Pappas LK, et al. Wide QRS complex supraventricular tachycardia with negative precordial concordance. Am Heart Hosp J. 2009; 7(1):67-8. [PubMed]
4. Kappos KG, et al. Wide QRS Complex tachycardia with a negative concordance pattern in the precordial leads: Are the ECG criteria always reliable? Pacing Clin Electrophys. 2006; 29:63-6. [PubMed]
5. Volders PGA, et al. Wide QRS complex tachycardia with negative precordial concordance: Always a ventricular origin? J Cardio Electro. 2003; 14:109-111. [PubMed]
6. Garmel GM. Wide Complex Tachycardias: Understanding this Complex Condition Part 1 - Epidemiology and Electrophysiology. W J Emerg Med. 2008; 9(1):28-39. [Full Text]
7. Ibid. 1, Figure 3.