The effect of orally-administered aminophylline on cardiac arrhythmias was studied in 15 patients with stable chronic obstructive pulmonary disease by continuous 24-hour ambulatory electrocardiographic recordings. During the control period, the mean frequency of ventricular ectopic beats (VEBs) per hour was 43 +/- 26 (range 0.3 to 401), and heart rate was 80 +/- 3 beats per minute. All grades o...

Unlike the adult population, arrhythmias occur less commonly in childhood. Only 5% of the emergency hospital admissions in the paediatric population is attributed to symptomatic arrhythmias.1 Majority of these tend to be accessory pathway mediated supraventricular tachyarrhythmias such as Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) syndrome, permanent junctional reciprocating tachycardia (PJRT) and Mahaim tach...

INTRODUCTION Standard electrophysiologic techniques generally allow discrimination among mechanisms of paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia. The purpose of this study was to determine whether the response of paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia to atrial and ventricular overdrive pacing can help determine the tachycardia mechanism. METHODS AND RESULTS Fifty-three patients with paroxysma...

INTRODUCTION The purpose of this study is to describe a simple and reliable diagnostic maneuver that allows for the rapid differentiation of atypical AV nodal reentrant tachycardia (AVNRT) from other causes of long RP tachycardia. Long RP tachycardias may be caused by atypical AVNRT, orthodromic reciprocating tachycardia (ORT) involving a slowly conducting retrograde accessory pathway, or atria...

A microcomputer algorithm for tachycardia identification, suitable for use in an implanted antitachycardia pacemaker, is described. The system employs an atrial and ventricular electrogram, detects a sustained fast rate in either chamber, and awakens the main program to perform detailed analysis of the tachycardia and its immediately preceding beats. The algorithm distinguishes atrial, ventricu...

Two patients who presented by scalar ECG with an A-V junctional tachycardia were demonstrated during an electrophysiologic evaluation to have an atrial tachycardia without P waves in the surface ECG. Case 1 had an atrial tachycardia that conducted through the A-V node with a Wenckebach block. Atrial activity was recorded only from the proximal portion of the coronary sinus and from right atrial...

Focal atrial tachycardia is a relatively uncommon arrhythmia. Nevertheless, the management of highly symptomatic patients with focal atrial tachycardia can be problematic owing to the poor response to medical treatment. Moreover, focal atrial tachycardia can trigger other atrial arrhythmias like atrial fibrillation and flutter. Radiofrequency ablation of focal atrial tachycardia is extremely su...

AIMS Supraventricular tachycardia may trigger atrial fibrillation (AF). The aim of the study was to evaluate the prevalence of supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) inducibility in patients referred for AF ablation and to evaluate the effects of SVT ablation on AF recurrences. METHODS AND RESULTS Two hundred and fifty-seven patients (185 males; mean age: 53.4 ± 14.6 years) referred for AF ablati...