An automatic scanning pacemaker successfully terminated frequent SVT episodes in a patient, leading to clinical improvement despite a high frequency of initiated episodes.
Answers are grounded in this paper and cite their sources.
Clinical improvement with scanning pacemaker in refractory SVT; leaves open need for controlled trials before wider use.
A 68-year-old woman suffering from frequent attacks of supraventricular tachycardia received an implantable, automatic scanning pacemaker for tachycardia termination (PASAR). Electrophysiological study had shown the mechanism to be atrioventricular reentry with retrograde conduction through a concealed bypass tract. During 1 year of follow-up, a total of twenty-one 24-hour Holter recordings documented 554 episodes of tachycardia. In spite of marked fluctuation in tachycardia rate from 135 to 195 bpm and a considerable variation in diurnal pattern of onset of episodes, a clinical improvement resulted. Previous episodes of tachycardia had been isolated and of longer duration. Following implantation, an unexpected observation was made of numerous episodes of supraventricular tachycardia confined to periods lasting up to several hours. This pattern seemed to result from the efficacy of tachycardia termination combined with a continued presence of factors responsible for initiation of tachycardia.
No takes yet. Share an insight, caveat, or question.
Simonsen et al. (1985) studied this question.
Synapse has enriched 10 related papers. Consider them for comparative context: