ELECTROCARDIOLOGY BASIS OF PAROXYSMAL ATRIAL-FIBRILLATION

  • 1 January 1979
    • journal article
    • research article
    • Vol. 68  (11) , 754-758
Abstract
Fifty-five patients (15 subjects in whom a special cardiac disease could be ruled out and 40 patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation) were investigated by means of the extrastimulus method at a driving rate of 80/min. Signs of atrial vulnerability occurred in 32 of the 40 patients with paroxysmal atrial fibrillation. When compared with the healthy subjects and the remaining 8 patients who did not fulfill the criteria for vulnerability, there were significantly shorter effective and longer relative refractory periods of the right atrium in the vulnerability group. The re-entry phenomenon evidently may be the underlying mechanism of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation in the group with atrial vulnerability.