Control of the heart rate (rate control) is central to atrial fibrillation management, even for patients who ultimately require control of the rhythm. We review heart rate control in patients with atrial fibrillation, including the rationale for the intervention, patient selection, and the treatments available. The choice of rate control depends on the symptoms and clinical characteristics of t...

OBJECTIVES We sought to investigate the long-term efficacy of slow-pathway catheter ablation in patients with spontaneous, documented paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (PSVT) and dual atrioventricular (AV) node pathways but without inducible tachycardia. BACKGROUND The lack of reproduction of clinical PSVT by programmed electrical stimulation, which is not uncommon in AV node reentrant ...

Discrete radiofrequency lesion at the atrial insertion site of the tendon of Todaro in the perfused rabbit preparation lengthens A-H interval, mimicking fast pathway input ablation. This study attempts to define the cellular electrophysiology of the ablation region prior to and after the elimination of fast AV node conduction. In six superfused rabbit AV node preparations, the cellular electrop...

The pioneering surgical reports of Ross et al. (1) and Cox et al. (2) set the stage for catheter ablation of atrioventricular (AV) node reentrant tachycardia by demonstrating that this type of tachycardia could be cured without damage to the compact AV node or impairment of AV conduction. Several experimental and clinical studies (3-8) have indicated that the anterior and posterior inputs into ...

Introduction The ablate-and-pace technique is a well-established method to treat patients with persistent and paroxysmal atrial fibrillation with poor rate control on medical therapy.1 The technique represents a class IIa indication to control heart rates when pharmacologic therapy is insufficient or intolerable.2 As many of these patients are in permanent atrial fibrillation, they frequently r...

Nineteen procedures were performed in 17 children, aged 10 months to 17 years, using catheter radiofrequency applications for the management of malignant or drug-resistant supraventricular tachyarrhythmias. Diagnoses were junctional ectopic tachycardia in 1 patient, atrioventricular (AV) node reentrant tachycardia in 4 and accessory pathway-mediated tachycardia in 12. Accessory pathway location...

Radiofrequency ablation was attempted in a 17-year-old man with atrioventricular node re-entry of the common variety. Energy was delivered to three sites around the ostium of the coronary sinus. The third attempt resulted in a sudden increase in AH interval with loss of retrograde conduction. The arrhythmia was no longer inducible. These observations may suggest the unusual location of the fast...