A. Celiker et al., TRANSTELEPHONIC ECG VERSUS ELECTROPHYSIOLOGIC STUDY IN CHILDREN WITH RECURRENT PALPITATION ATTACKS, Turkish Journal of Pediatrics, 39(1), 1997, pp. 45-50
Palpitation may be a terrifying event for children and pose diagnostic
problems for pediatric cardiologists. Routine methods often fail to d
ocument episodic arrhythmia because the episodes may be biref or infre
quent or both. The purpose of this study was to evaluate and compare v
alues of non-invasive and invasive techniques. Twenty-three children (
mean age 11.7 +/- 2 years, range 7-16 years) with recurrent palpitatio
n attacks (> 2 times), who had normal physical examinations, EGG, echo
cardiography 24 hour ambulatory ECG monitoring and treadmill exercise
tests, were included in the study. Redline(R) Model CG 4000 TTE record
ers were given to patients for 10 or 20 days. We performed an intracar
diac electrophysiologic study (EPS) on 14 patients. The mean number of
palpitation attacks was 11.3 +/- 7.4 (median: 5), lasting 9.6 +/- 7 (
median 3) minutes. The number of transmitting records was 2 +/- 1.4 (1
-20). Of the 23 patients, only 15 (65%) transmitted during the palpita
tion attacks. Twenty-four-hour ambulatory ECG monitoring findings were
normal In all patients. One patient had a wide QRS tachycardia attack
in the TTE records. We stimulated ventricular tachycardia In the same
patient in the EPS. Among the other patients who transmitted TTE reco
rds during palpitation attacks, we diagnosed two cases of concealed ac
cessory pathway and eight cases of dual AV nodal pathway in the EPS. I
n conclusion, TTF is a sensitive and accurate method for diagnosis and
follow up of patients with cardiac arrhythmia. It can be used before
invasive studies in children with recurrent palpitation attacks.