Decline in ventricular fibrillation threshold after successive premature extrastimuli: a possible explantation for the induction of ventricular fibrillation during programmed stimulation with multiple extrastimuli.

To examine the relation between the ventricular fibrillation threshold and the number of premature extrastimuli delivered to the right ventricle during programmed ventricular stimulation, a clinical stimulation protocol was performed in nine normal, anaesthetised, closed chest dogs. In addition, the ventricular fibrillation threshold was measured in each dog after a train of eight paced (S1) beats (VFT-S2), after a single premature extrastimulus (VFT-S3), and after two extrastimuli (VFT-S4). The VFT-V3 was 32% lower than the VFT-S2 (16(7) mA vs 24(9) mA, p less than 0.001). The VFT-S4, or the current required by the S4 extrastimulus to induce ventricular fibrillation, was 25% lower than the VFT-S3 (12(8) mA vs 16(7) mA, p less than 0.05). The cumulative reduction in the ventricular fibrillation threshold measured by the S1S2S3S4 stimulation protocol was approximately 50%. Although in most dogs the VFT-S4 was still considerably higher than twice threshold current intensity, the results of the study suggest that a possible mechanism for the induction of non-clinical ventricular fibrillation in the clinical electrophysiology laboratory may be the progressive lowering of the ventricular fibrillation threshold caused by the addition of multiple extrastimuli. This may be particularly relevant in patients with an already reduced fibrillation threshold.