Treatment of slow heart rates following acute myocardial infarction.

. While ventricular fibrillation is the usual cause of sudden death, a frequent precursor appears to be a slow rate due to slow nodal rhythm or complete atrio-ventricular block (Brown et al., 1963), with a tendency to episodes of asystole or ventricular tachyarrhythmia. Despite the effectiveness of some drugs such as atropine, steroids, and isoprenaline, the over-all mortality in patients with a slow rate following myocardial infarction is high (Solarz, Berkson, and Pick, 1958; Gale and Enfroy, 1959;