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Combination of Antitachycardia Pacemaker and Automatic Implantable Cardioverter/Defibrillator for Ventricular Tachycardia
Author(s) -
MANZ MATTHIAS,
GERCKENS ULRICH,
FUNKE HERMANN DIETRICH,
KIRCHHOFF PAUL GERHARD,
LÜDERITZ BERNDT
Publication year - 1986
Publication title -
pacing and clinical electrophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.686
H-Index - 101
eISSN - 1540-8159
pISSN - 0147-8389
DOI - 10.1111/j.1540-8159.1986.tb05415.x
Subject(s) - medicine , cardiology , implantable cardioverter defibrillator , ventricular tachycardia , tachycardia
Antitachycardia pacing for ventricular tachycardia (VT) is associated with the possibility of fibrillating the heart; on the other hand, (he frequency of VT and patient discomfort can limit treatment with the automatic implantable cardioverter/defibrillator (AICD). To contribute to the further deveJopment of a universal pacemaker, we evaluated the combined use of the anti‐tachycardia pacemaker (“tachylog”) and the AICD in five patients with recurrent VT. In the automatic mode, the “tachylog” worked as a bipolar VVI pacemaker. For antitachycardia pacing, a burst of rapid ventricular pacing was delivered at about 80% of the cycle length. During a follow‐up period of 5 ± 2 months (range, 3 to 8) two to 291 successful interventions of antitachycardia pacing were counted from diagnostic data which had been collected by the pulse generator during the course of treatment. When the antitachycardia pacemaker failed to terminate VT, the AICD was activated. In the individual case, between 0 and 41 discharges of the AICD were delivered. The high pulse energy of the AICD did not damage I/in antitachycardia pacemaker; no interference of the two devices was observed. Future antitachycardia systems should be more flexible with regard to detection and termination modes, combining antitachycardia pacing with back‐up defibrillation.