Abstract

RODRIGUEZ, Diego Andrés; ROSAS, Fernando; JUMBO, Luis Alfredo  and  VELASCO, Víctor Manuel. Permanent auriculo-ventricular junctional reciprocating tachycardia. Arch. Cardiol. Méx. [online]. 2001, vol.71, n.1, pp.50-58. ISSN 1665-1731.

Permanent auriculo-ventricular junctional reciprocating tachycardia is a special form of tachycardia usually incessant, secondary to an slow retrograde conduction pathway. Objective: To establish the clinical, electrophysiological characteristics and therapy results in patients with this diagnosis. Method: Descriptive study. Results: Nine patients with average age 28.1 ± 19.2 years, six women. Seven patients presented with dyspnea or palpitations. The left ventricular ejection fraction before treatment was 43.3 ± 19.5%. The electrocardiographic findings were: heart rate of 139.2 ± 16.7 bpm, QRS 78.9 ± 16.2 ms and RP'/P'R relation of 1.8 ± 0.5. The location of the accessory pathways was: right postero-septal in seven (77.7%), left lateral in one (11.15%) and left postero-lateral in one (11.15%). Radiofrequency ablation was performed in eight patients with an 87.5% success rate, two cases were taken to surgery with successful treatment, one of them after percutaneous ablation failure. Those with systolic left ventricular dysfunction recover their function in the follow-up. Any case has recurred. Conclusions: In our center, permanent auriculo-ventricular junctional reciprocating tachycardia is an infrequent arrhythmia, predominantly in women and associated with reversible left ventricular dysfunction. Right postero-septal was the most frequent localization of the pathway. Radiofrequency ablation was performed successfully in 87.5% of cases.

Keywords : Reciprocating supraventricular tachycardia; Catheter ablation; Heart conduction system.