Supraventricular Tachycardia

Supraventricular tachycardia is any tachyarrhythmia that requires atrial or atrioventricular junctional tissue for its initiation and maintenance. Decades ago the term “paroxysmal atrial tachycardia” was coined to describe supraventricular tachycardia that began and ended abruptly. This term has become obsolete, however, since it is now clear that many such arrhythmias arise in the atrioventricular junction, not in atrial muscle itself. Much of our present knowledge about the sites of origin and mechanisms of supraventricular tachycardia has been derived from cellular electrophysiologic studies and from clinical electrophysiologic studies using the technique of programmed electrical stimulation.1,2 We have learned that such . . .