Postpericardiotomy syndrome and cardiac tamponade as a late complication after pacemaker implantation.

In a 78-year old woman, pacemaker implantation was complicated by a transient perforation of the endocardial lead. The patient was in stable condition for up to 7 weeks after implantation, after which pericardial effusion and subacute cardiac tamponade developed and pericardiocentesis became necessary. This case illustrates that even after initially uneventful pacemaker lead perforation, careful, long-term follow-up is necessary to recognize the potential development of late postpericardiotomy syndrome.

Breath-to-breath variability correlates with apnea-hypopnea index in obstructive sleep apnea.

Background: Breathing in patients with obstructive sleep apnea (OSA) is frequently interrupted by periods of hypopnea and apnea. There is limited information regarding a possible disturbance of breathing outside these periods.

Study Objective: To analyze the degree of breathing disturbance during nonocclusion.

Independent autonomic modulation of sinus node and ventricular myocardium in healthy young men during sleep.

Introduction: The aim of this study was to investigate whether autonomic modulation of ventricular repolarization may spontaneously differ from that of the sinoatrial node.

Methods And Results: Onset of P waves, QRS complexes, and the apex and end of T waves were detected beat to beat in high-resolution ECGs from nine healthy young men during the night. There were time-dependent fluctuations in the QT/RR slopes of consecutive 5-minute segments that could not be explained by the mean RR cycle length of the respective segment.

Demonstration of nonlinear components in heart rate variability of healthy persons.

We present a systematic approach for detecting nonlinear components in heart rate variability (HRV). The analysis is based on twenty-three 48-h Holter recordings in healthy persons during sinus rhythm. Although many segments of 1,024 R-R intervals are stationary, only few stationary segments of 8,192-32,768 R-R intervals can be found using a test of Isliker and Kurths (Int.

Preserved autonomic modulation of the sinus and atrioventricular nodes following posteroseptal ablation for treatment of atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia.

Introduction: Following radiofrequency catheter ablation of AV nodal reentrant tachycardia (AVNRT), inappropriate sinus tachycardia may occur, possibly due to damage to autonomic cardiac nerve fibers. Furthermore, inducibility of AVNRT is often critically dependent on the autonomic balance. We investigated whether successful ablation of AVNRT is associated with an alteration of autonomic input to the sinus and AV nodes.