In patients with latent dual atrioventricular nodal pathways a 2:1 ventriculoatrial block often occurs during ventricular pacing and is generally associated with the concomitant appearance of QRS alternans. This type of QRS alternans is related to retrograde conduction, and a concealed retrograde conduction in the His Purkinje system could explain the QRS alternans. A case that confirms the hyp...

This review deals with the mechanisms by which digitalis exerts its "opium-like" action on the ventricular rate in patients with atrial fibrillation. To understand the effect of digitalis on ventricular rate and rhythm, it is essential to learn more about the basic electrophysiologic principles responsible for: atrial fibrillation as such, and the scaling function of the atrioventricular (AV) n...

Using His bundle recordings and ventricular stimulation retrograde conduction was studied in 57 cases of complete AV block. VA conduction was observed in 13 patients. Of the 13, 12 had AV block distal to H, and during cardiac pacing 5 of them showed a retrograde His bundle potential. In all cases the AV node-His pathway was implicated in the transmission of the retrograde impulse. There was no ...

A 10-year-old boy with a supraventricular tachycardia was referred for catheter ablation. An electrophysiologic study revealed a left lateral concealed accessory pathway (AP). A few radiofrequency (RF) applications targeting the AP resulted in an inadvertent intra-atrial conduction block at the mitral isthmus without any damage to the AP. Adenosine was then administered during left ventricular ...

The mechanism of origin of ventricular premature depolarizations (VPDs) is explained by automaticity or reentry. We studied three patients with intermittent left bundle branch block (LBBB) and unifocal VPDs of right bundle branch block (RBBB) morphology (assumed left ventricular origin). We examined the effect of different types of intraventricular conduction on the coupling intervals of the VP...