Effects of intravenous sotalol in patients with atrioventricular accessory pathways.

Effects of intravenous injection of 0.6 mg/kg sotalol, a beta-blocking agent with additional class III properties, were studied by means of electrophysiologic techniques in 14 patients, seven with the Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome and seven with concealed atrioventricular (AV) accessory pathways. Sotalol brought about a significant increase in the retrograde effective refractory period of the anomalous pathway, whereas changes in the antegrade effective refractory period were more variable. In five of nine patients with electrically induced reciprocating tachycardia sotalol prevented the initiation of sustained reentry. In most cases the suppression of the circus movement was the result of the development of AV nodal block. Thus our data support the use of sotalol for the treatment of tachycardias incorporating anomalous AV conduction pathways.