Termination of ventricular tachycardia by an implantable atrial pacemaker and external pacemaker activator.
An atrial pacemaker was implanted in a patient who had dilated cardiomyopathy, sinus node dysfunction, and drug-resistant ventricular tachycardia (VT). VT episodes were terminated by atrial overdrive pacing using an implanted pacemaker and a newly developed hand-held external programmer/transmitter. Although successful cases of termination of intractable VT by ventricular pacing have recently been reported, the ventricular method might increase the risk of accelerating VT. Atrial overdrive pacing is a safer method since it minimizes the possibility of tachycardia acceleration and, combined with antiarrhythmic drugs, it appeared to be a unique and useful approach for the treatment of drug-resistant VT.
Tanabe
A
A
Ikeda
H
H
Fujiyama
M
M
Furuta
Y
Y
Matsumura
J
J
Ohbayashi
J
J
Utsu
F
F
Toshima
H
H
D000328:Adult; D002304:Cardiac Pacing, Artificial / Q000379:methods*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010138:Pacemaker, Artificial; D013610:Tachycardia / Q000628:therapy*