Frequency of the onset of supraventricular tachyarrhythmias as a function of underlying heart disease

The prevalence of inducible ventricular arrhythmias is related to the underlying pathology. This study was undertaken to determine the prevalence of supraventricular tachyarrhythmias (SVT), atrial tachycardia, flutter or fibrillation, sustained for over 30 seconds. Programmed atrial stimulation was used to deliver 1 or 2 extrastimuli during sinus and paced rhythm in 230 subjects without obvious cardiac disease (149 without and 81 with spontaneous SVT) and 432 patients with documented cardiac pathology (407 without and 25 with spontaneous SVT). The incidence of inducible SVT with respect to that of spontaneous SVT and in relation to cardiac pathology was as follows: (table; see text) The prevalence of inducible SVT in patients without spontaneous SVT was related to the type of pathology: (table; see text) These results show that in patients with spontaneous SVT the induction of the arrhythmia was facilitated by the presence of underlying cardiac pathology (sensitivity increasing from 67% to 88%). In patients without spontaneous SVT, the nature of the underlying disease was related to the prevalence of inducible SVT, the risk being major in SA block, right ventricular dysplasia and mitral valve prolapse (60-80%) and moderate in dilated CMP and myocardial infarction (35 to 40%).