Ventricular tachyarrhythmia, in particular ventricular fibrillation, may be partially enabled by an imbalance within the autonomic nervous system. Decreased parasympathetic (or vagal) cardiac regulatory activity may be responsible for the development of conditions that allow ventricular fibrillation to develop and sustain itself. An analysis of R-R intervals immediately prior to episodes of ven...

yENTRICUIAR and supraventricular tachyeardias are occasionally resistant to drug therapy and may culminate in congestive heart failure, circulatory collapse, ventricular fibrillation, and death. In this paper are presented recent experiences with eight patients in whom tachyeardias were unresponsive to drug therapy and were terminated by external electric countershock, usually unider general an...

BACKGROUND Early defibrillation is considered the most important factor for restoring spontaneous circulation in cardiac arrest patients with ventricular fibrillation. Recent studies have shown that, after prolonged ventricular fibrillation, the rates of return of spontaneous circulation (ROSC) and survival are improved if defibrillation is delayed so that CPR can be given first. To examine whe...

yENTRICUIAR and supraventricular tachyeardias are occasionally resistant to drug therapy and may culminate in congestive heart failure, circulatory collapse, ventricular fibrillation, and death. In this paper are presented recent experiences with eight patients in whom tachyeardias were unresponsive to drug therapy and were terminated by external electric countershock, usually unider general an...

yENTRICUIAR and supraventricular tachyeardias are occasionally resistant to drug therapy and may culminate in congestive heart failure, circulatory collapse, ventricular fibrillation, and death. In this paper are presented recent experiences with eight patients in whom tachyeardias were unresponsive to drug therapy and were terminated by external electric countershock, usually unider general an...

• In previous papers from this laboratory,' it has been shown that isolated guinea pig and cat hearts perfused with Tyrode solution without substrates undergo a decrease in rate, a decrease in amplitude of the R wave, a lengthening of the P-R interval, ventricular premature contractions, A-V dissociation, and, finally, ventricular fibrillation. The ventricular fibrillation, induced by the lack ...

BACKGROUND The goal of the report was to study the long-term incidence and the independent predictors for chronic atrial fibrillation and stroke in 507 paced patients with sick sinus syndrome, adjusting for differences in baseline clinical variables with multivariate analysis. METHODS AND RESULTS From 1980 to 1989, we implanted 376 dual-chamber, 19 atrial, and 112 ventricular pacemakers to tr...

Background. The goal of the report was to study the long-term incidence and the independent predictors for chronic atrial fibrillation and stroke in 507 paced patients with sick sinus syndrome, adjusting for differences in baseline clinical variables with multivariate analysis. Methods and Results. From 1980 to 1989, we implanted 376 dual-chamber, 19 atrial, and 112 ventricular pacemakers to tr...

The aim of this study was to determine whether the changes in myocardial activation pattern resulting from acute stretching during ventricular fibrillation can be counteracted by administering a compound that blocks receptors sensitive to stretch. The study involved 16 isolated rabbit hearts, in which refractoriness and activation frequency during ventricular fibrillation were measured before, ...