Bradycardia-tachycardia syndrome: results in twenty-eight patients treated by combined pharmacologic therapy and pacemaker implantation.

The bradycardia-tachycardia syndrome was treated with pacemaker implantation and drugs in 28 patients. All patients survived pacemaker implantation and 26 of 28 patients experienced good control of their arrhythmias. Nineteen patients survived for more than one year (group 1); nine patients survived for less than one year (group 2), including two patients whose arrhythmias were not well controlled by pacemaker plus drugs. There was no significant difference in mean age between the two groups (75 2 5 years in group 1 and 79 -c 3 years in group 2). Gout, diabetes, hypertension, angina pectoris, and cardiomegaly were equally common in both groups. Prior to implantation, 14 of 19 patients in group