The development of cardiomyopathy may be correlated to atrial or to ventricular arrhythmias. The associated heart failure generally starts to improve within days to months of achieving ventricular rhythm control. However, transient myocardial stunning after transcatheter ablation leading to congestive heart failure with cardiogenic shock in tachycardia-induced cardiomyopathy was less mentioned before. A 33-year-old man, presented with a persistent atrial flutter with a rapid ventricular rate for three months, had complications with tachycardia-induced
cardiomyopathy [left ventricle (LV) ejection fraction (EF)=35%]. Atrial and ventricular (A/V) stunning with deterioration of the LV function (EF=20%) developed after successful restoration of the sinus rhythm by catheter ablation. His A/V contractility improved after short-term intravenous treatment with dobutamine at 5 μg/kg/min. Four months later, the patient was still in sinus rhythm with an improved LV contractility (EF=50%) and increased atrial contraction wave from 31.5±5.9 cm/sec to 58.7±8.5 cm/sec. This suggests that dobutamine may facilitate reversion of the A/V stunning in patients with tachycardia-induced cardiomyopathy.