Which term describes a QRS complex that looks like a normal conduction occurring during ventricular tachycardia, indicating occasional capture?

• A. Capture beat
• B. Fusion beat
• C. Escape beat
• D. Reentrant beat

Answer: (A)

During ventricular tachycardia, the ventricles are driven by an abnormal focus, so most beats have wide, bizarre QRS complexes. Occasionally, the heart’s normal conduction system can momentarily capture the ventricles and conduct a beat in a normal fashion, producing a QRS that looks like a standard, narrow beat despite the ongoing VT. This phenomenon is known as a capture beat. It shows that intact His-Purkinje conduction can briefly take control even while the VT continues.

A fusion beat, by contrast, would mix the VT activation with normal conduction, giving a QRS morphology that’s intermediate between the two, not a pure normal QRS. An escape beat arises from a secondary pacemaker after a pause and typically has a different, often slower morphology. Reentrant beat isn’t the term used to describe this isolated normal-looking beat during VT.