Termination of ventricular tachycardia by an increase in cardiac vagal drive.
Out of 12 patients in whom phenylephrine terminated ventricular tachycardia, four were selected for detailed studies of its mechanism of action. Pretreatment with edrophonium (15-20 mg, i.v.) decreased, while atropine (2.4 mg, i.v.) increased by at least a factor of two, the dose of phenylephrine required to break ventricular tachycardia. Carotid sinus massage following pretreatment with edrophonium in unusually high (15-20 mg, i.v.) doses broke ventricular tachycardia in all four patients. The evidence presented supports the assumption that a vagal mechanism caused both instances of termination. These findings significantly alter our interpretation of vagal interventions in the bedside clinical diagnosis of wide QRS complex tachycardias.[1]References
- Termination of ventricular tachycardia by an increase in cardiac vagal drive. Waxman, M.B., Wald, R.W. Circulation (1977) [Pubmed]
Annotations and hyperlinks in this abstract are from individual authors of WikiGenes or automatically generated by the WikiGenes Data Mining Engine. The abstract is from MEDLINE®/PubMed®, a database of the U.S. National Library of Medicine.About WikiGenesOpen Access LicencePrivacy PolicyTerms of Useapsburg