Dsw. Ho et al., COMPARISON OF NUMBER OF EXTRASTIMULI VERSUS CHANGE IN BASIC CYCLE LENGTH FOR INDUCTION OF VENTRICULAR-TACHYCARDIA BY PROGRAMMED VENTRICULARSTIMULATION, Journal of the American College of Cardiology, 22(6), 1993, pp. 1711-1717
Objectives. The purpose of this study was to examine the effects of va
rying basic cycle lengths in a programmed stimulation protocol if up t
o seven extrastimuli were available at each basic cycle length. Backgr
ound. There is no uniformly accepted protocol for induction of ventric
ular tachycardia. Most protocols limit the number of extrastimuli to t
wo or three but use several basic cycle lengths. Methods. Twenty-eight
patients with coronary artery disease and documented spontaneous sust
ained ventricular tachycardia or ventricular fibrillation were studied
. In the absence of antiarrhythmic drugs, each patient underwent three
inductions of ventricular tachycardia/ventricular fibrillation using
sinus rhythm or right ventricular pacing at 600 or 400 ms as the basic
cycle length. Up to seven extrastimuli were allowed at each basic cyc
le length. Results. The maximal yield of clinical tachycardia (96 %) w
as identical for each basic cycle length and was achieved using a maxi
mum of seven, five and four extrastimuli for sinus rhythm and 600 and
400 ms, respectively. A basic cycle length of 400 ms required fewer ex
trastimuli (2.4 +/- 0.7) to induce ventricular tachycardia/ventricular
fibrillation than did 600 ms (2.7 +/- 1.1, p = 0.014) or sinus rhythm
(3.4 +/- 1.2, p < 0.001). There was no significant difference in the
cycle lengths of the induced ventricular tachycardia, incidence of ind
uced ventricular fibrillation or requirement for direct current counte
rshock. Conclusions. The use of an adequate number of extrastimuli obv
iates the need for multiple basic cycle lengths for induction of ventr
icular tachycardia and does not increase induction of unwanted ventric
ular fibrillation. If only one basic cycle length is used, the ease of
inducibility can be quantified in terms of the number of extrastimuli
required. Fewer extrastimuli were required for induction of ventricul
ar tachycardia if a basic cycle length of 400 ms was used. These data
favor the use of ventricular pacing at a basic cycle length of 400 ms
with up to at least four extrastimuli as the standard stimulation prot
ocol for induction of ventricular tachycardia.