Gang E S, Reiffel J A, Livelli F D, Bigger J T
Am Heart J. 1983 Feb;105(2):210-5. doi: 10.1016/0002-8703(83)90515-x.
We compared the pauses that followed the spontaneous termination of supraventricular tachyarrhythmias with the pauses that followed the cessation of atrial overdrive pacing in 21 patients. In 10 patients with abnormal sinus node function and in 11 patients with normal sinus node function we recorded the spontaneous termination of supraventricular tachyarrhythmia in the clinical electrophysiology laboratory; a strong correlation (r = 0.94) was found between the maximal spontaneous sinus node recovery time and the maximal paced sinus node recovery time. A weaker correlation was found between the paced and spontaneous sinus node recovery times (r = 0.57) when the spontaneous termination of supraventricular tachyarrhythmia was recorded during ambulatory electrocardiographic recording in seven patients. Spontaneous sinus node recovery times were significantly shorter than maximal paced sinus node recovery times (p less than 0.001). However, no significant difference was detected between the paced and spontaneous sinus node recovery times when atrial pacing was performed at the rate of the tachycardia. We conclude that spontaneous and postpacing sinus node recovery times are closely correlated. The paced sinus node recovery time is, however, frequently more prolonged than spontaneous sinus node recovery time because of probable atriosinus entrance block during rapid supraventricular tachycardia.
