Effects of Propafenone on Induction and Maintenance of Atrioventricular Nodal Reentrant Tachycardia

Electrophysiologic studies were performed in 10 patients with atrioventricular (A-V) nodal reentrant paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardias (PSVT), before and after intravenous administration of propafenone (1.5 mg/kg). All patients utilized an A-V nodal slow pathway for anterograde conduction and an A-V nodal fast pathway for retrograde conduction of the reentrant impulse. Propafenone depressed retrograde fast pathway conduction which was manifested by: 1) complete V-A block at all ventricular paced cycle lengths after propafenone in 3 cases; 2) increase in mean +/- SD of ventricular paced cycle length producing V-A block from less than 308 +/- 37 ms to 432 +/- 63 ms in the remaining 7 patients. Nine of the 10 patients had induction of sustained PSVT before propafenone. In 7 of the 9, PSVT could not be induced or sustained after propafenone, reflecting depression of the retrograde fast pathway conduction with either absence of atrial echoes (5 patients) or induction of nonsustained PSVT, with termination occurring after the QRS (2 patients). In 1 patient, single atrial echoes were induced before propafenone but none were noted after the drug. In only 2 patients was a sustained PSVT inducible after propafenone. In conclusion, propafenone inhibited induction of sustained A-V nodal reentrant PSVT in most patients, reflecting depression of retrograde A-V nodal fast pathway conduction.