Characterization of different subsets of atrial fibrillation in general practice in France: the ALFA study. The College of French Cardiologists.

Background: The clinical presentation and causes of atrial fibrillation (AF) in the 1990s may differ from AF seen 2 to 3 decades ago. It was the objective of this prospective study to characterize various clinical presentations and underlying conditions of patients with AF observed in general practice in France.

Methods And Results: The study population comprised 756 patients (19 to 95 years of age) with electrocardiographically documented AF subdivided into paroxysmal (<7 days), chronic (last episode >1 month) and recent onset AF(persistent >7 days and<1 month).

Single radiofrequency application to cure atrioventricular nodal reentry: arguments for the slow pathway origin of the high-low frequency slow potentials.

Background: High-low frequency slow potentials are thought to be related to the slow AV pathway conduction. Their use was proposed to guide radiofrequency (RF) ablation of atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia (AVNRT). The present study was designed to determine the prospective value of these high-low frequency slow potentials to guide AVNRT ablation using a single RF application.

Asystolic cardiac arrest during head-up tilt test: incidence and therapeutic implications.

Occasionally, the cardioinhibitory response may be profound during tilt induced syncope. Whether this response is associated with more severe symptoms or predicts a poor response to pharmacotherapy remains controversial. The aim of this study was to characterize patients with vasovagally mediated asystole occurring during head-up tilt test and to evaluate the respective interests of sequential pacing and beta-blockers to treat them.

Effect of ramipril on heart rate variability in digitalis-treated patients with chronic heart failure.

The aim of this study was to evaluate the effect of an angiotensin-converting enzyme (ACE) inhibitor, ramipril, on heart rate variability in patients with heart failure simultaneously treated with digitalis. This study was a multicentric, randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled study including 50 patients with chronic heart failure (CHF). All patients were in NYHA functional class II and III.

Systemic infection related to endocarditis on pacemaker leads: clinical presentation and management.

Background: Endocarditis related to pacemaker (PM)-lead infection is a rare but serious complication of permanent transvenous pacing. To determine in which situations the diagnosis should be evoked and to determine optimal management, we reviewed our experience with endocarditis related to PM-lead infection.

Methods And Results: Fifty-two patients were admitted for endocarditis related to PM-lead infection.

[Determinants of malignant vasovagal syncopes with asystole disclosed by the tilting test and therapeutic implications].

Unlabelled: In order to evaluate the determinants of malignant vasovagal syncope with asystole revealed by the tilting test and to determine the possible therapeutic implications, 179 patients (91 women and 88 men, mean age 36.6 +/- 20.1 years) referred for the assessment of unexplained a were studied.

[Anxiety disorders and unexplained syncopes of presumed vaso-vagal origin].

The impact of anxiety neurosis on the diagnosis and treatment of patients with unexplained syncope (S) was assessed in 178 patients (91 women and 87 men) with an average age of 36.5 +/- 20 years, presenting with 10.7 +/- 24 episodes of S).

Late diagnosis of pericardial constriction associated with defibrillator patches and deformation of the left ventricle.

We report a case of pericardial constriction associated with defibrillator patches developing 4.5 years after implantation. This constriction was related to the presence of a large pericardial mass that had developed above the defibrillator patch.

[Prognostic factors after sustained ventricular fibrillation or tachycardia. A multivariate study apropos of 160 cases].

The authors analysed survival of 160 patients (121 men and 31 women; average age 57.2 +/- 12.5 years; follow-up 29 +/- 20 months) treated for malignant ventricular arrhythmias (sustained ventricular tachycardia, ventricular fibrillation, syncope with inducible ventricular tachycardia).

[Value of mapping in surgical treatment of ventricular tachycardia].

Surgery may be proposed for patients with a localised aneurysm or akinesia for treatment of monomorphic ventricular tachycardia resistant to antiarrhythmic therapy after myocardial infarction. The multiplicity of tachycardia forms in the same patient, the variability of their mechanism which is not necessarily limited to the subendocardia layers, require mapping to guide the surgeon in the destruction of the anatomical substrates. In a series of 57 ventricular tachycardias recorded in 17 patients with myocardial infarction the authors demonstrated that a system of computerised mapping of the epicardial and endocardial regions optimised the results of this form of surgery.

[Automatic implantable defibrillator and antiarrhythmic surgery in ischemic cardiopathies. Apropos of 53 cases].

The automatic implantable defibrillator (AID) and antiarrhythmic surgery are the two therapeutic options after failure of catheter ablation and/or antiarrhythmic therapy for sustained ventricular tachycardia (VT) or ventricular fibrillation (VF) in patients with coronary artery disease. The authors undertook retrospective study of the characteristics of two groups of patients treated between November 31st 1987 et December 31st 1993 either by AID (28 men and 4 women with an average age of: 56.1 +/- 11.

[Automatic implantable defibrillators. Clinical experience apropos of 45 patients].

The aim of this study was to analyse the efficacy and survival after implantation of an automatic cardioverter-defibrillator.. Forty-five patients including 37 men were followed up for 0 to 51 months.

Determination of left ventricular mass in systemic hypertension: comparison of standard and signal averaged electrocardiography.

Objective: To investigate the quantitative relationship, if any, between signal averaged electrocardiographic variables and echocardiographically determined left ventricular mass in hypertensive subjects.

Design: Cohort analytic prospective study.

Setting: University hospital.

[Thromboembolic complications of arrhythmia due to atrial fibrillation].

Fifteen per cent of cerebrovascular accidents have a cardiac origin, two thirds of which are due to atrial fibrillation (AF). The Framingham study showed the risk of an ischaemic cerebral event to be increased by 5.6 in AF unrelated to rheumatic heart disease and by 17.

Direct recording of sinus node potentials using electrode catheter techniques.

Direct recording of sinus node (SN) potentials using electrode catheter techniques is feasible and may be achieved in 50-86% of patients. It takes 15-30 min using commercially available catheters. However, obtaining stable recordings is often difficult, necessitating direct contact of the distal electrode with the endocardial area underlying the sinus node.

Vasospastic angina without flow-limiting coronary lesions as a cause for aborted sudden death.

Two patients resuscitated from out-of-hospital cardiac arrest were later found to have minor coronary atherosclerosis and no inducible ventricular arrhythmia. Coronary spasm was not elicited during provocative tests but occurred on introduction of the catheter in the right coronary artery and spontaneously recurred after resuscitation, leading to myocardial infarction in one patient. Both patients received an implantable cardioverter defibrillator and subsequent discharges, while receiving calcium antagonists.

[Efficacy and tolerability of sustained-release disopyramide in the treatment of cardiac arrhythmia. Results of a study with 593 patients].

In the context of an open multicentre study, 593 patients participated in the evaluation of sustained release disopyramide (*) in the treatment of cardiac arrhythmias. One hundred and seventy one (29%) had a ventricular arrhythmia, 382 (64%) a supraventricular arrhythmia and 40 (7%) an atrial and ventricular arrhythmia. Two hundred and seventy patients (46%) had underlying cardiac disease.

[Efficacy of antihypertensive treatment in the French population. A multicenter survey].

In order to assess the efficacy of antihypertensive treatment in the population, a study was undertaken in 5 French cities during the commercial fairs of Grenoble, Marseilles, Nice, Toulouse and Lille. The blood pressure was measured according to the WHO recommendations in volunteers. The study included a total of 7107 subjects of both sexes, with 4064 subjects in the 35-64 year age group.

Effects of consecutive administration of central and peripheral anticholinergic agents on respiratory sinus arrhythmia in normal subjects.

Respiratory sinus arrhythmia is thought to be vagally mediated, since it disappears after atropine, but the site of action of the drug (central vs. peripheral) accounting for this effect has not been elucidated. To investigate the effects of anticholinergic agents on respiratory arrhythmia, ten healthy subjects received an intravenous bolus of tropatepine (a presumed central antagonist) at a dose of 0.

Signal-averaged electrocardiography and detection of heart transplant rejection: comparison of time and frequency domain analyses.

To evaluate the role of the signal-averaged electrocardiogram (ECG) in the detection of heart transplant rejection, findings on 277 ECGs were compared with those in 218 endomyocardial biopsy specimens in 25 patients followed up for a median duration of 5.2 months (range 7 days to 17.5 months).

Postextrasystolic sinoatrial exit block in human sick sinus syndrome: demonstration by direct recording of sinus node electrograms.

Ten patients with sick sinus syndrome having repetitive sinus node electrograms during long postpacing pauses were studied during programmed atrial stimulation. Sinus node activity was recorded using a percutaneous catheter electrode. A sinus node electrogram was recorded before the return atrial beat in seven patients; it was similar to the sinus node electrogram observed during postpacing pauses and is clearly identified because sinoatrial conduction time was markedly prolonged following the atrial extra beat.

Bipolar atrial triggered pacing to restore normal chronotropic responsiveness in an orthotopic cardiac transplant patient.

A not uncommon arrhythmia in cardiac orthotopic transplantation patients is sinus node dysfunction with chronotropic incompetence. This is a result of the surgical procedure that denervates the donor heart while the native sinus node may be normal but isolated in the remnant of the recipient atrial wall that serves as the anastomotic site. We were able to restore "normal sinus node function" in a heart transplant patient utilizing a bipolar single chamber pacemaker programmed to the triggered mode.