Europace Advance Access originally published online on April 24, 2009
Europace 2009 11(8):1083-1089; doi:10.1093/europace/eup093
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Electrophysiology and Ablation
Rapid and low-cost method to prove the nature of no documented tachycardia in children and teenagers without pre-excitation syndrome
Department of cardiology, CHU of Brabois, 54500 Vandoeuvre, France
Aims: Symptoms in children are often difficult to interpret. The purpose of this study was to report the results of transoesophageal electrophysiological study (EPS) performed in children complaining of sudden onset tachycardia with normal non-invasive studies.
Methods and results: Eighty-two children and teenagers (mean age 15 ± 3 years) presented with suspected but no documented paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (SVT). ECG was normal. Non-invasive studies were negative; 23 children had syncope with tachycardias. They underwent transoesophageal EPS in our out-patient clinic. The mean duration of transoesophageal EPS was 11 ± 5 min. Electrophysiological study was negative in 25 children. AV nodal re-entrant tachycardia could be induced in 37 children, 11 of them associated with syncope. Wolff–Parkinson–White syndrome (WPW) was diagnosed in five children in which atrioventricular re-entrant tachycardia was inducible. Atrioventricular re-entrant tachycardia due to a concealed AP was induced in 14 children. Verapamil-sensitive ventricular tachycardia was induced in one patient.
Factors associated with tachycardia inducibility were an older age (15.5 ± 2 vs. 14 ± 4 years) (P < 0.05) and the absence of syncope (81 vs. 52%) (P < 0.05). During a mean follow-up of 3 ± 1 year, no patient with negative EPS developed documented tachycardia. In 17 children with inducible SVT, radiofrequency ablation of the re-entrant circuit was subsequently performed.
Conclusion: Transoesophageal EPS is a fast method for proving the nature of paroxysmal tachycardia in children and teenagers presenting with normal ECG and for demonstrating WPW syndrome not visible on standard ECG. The negative predictive value of transoesophageal EPS for the diagnosis of SVT was 100%.
Key Words: Children, Supraventricular tachycardia, Electrophysiological study, Transoesophageal study
* Corresponding author. Tel: +33 3 83 15 31 42, Fax: +33 3 83 15 42 26, Email: b.brembilla-perrot{at}chu-nancy.fr
Manuscript submitted 8 December 2008. Accepted after revision 25 March 2009.
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  T. Szili-Torok, E. Mikhaylov, and M. Witsenburg Transoesophageal electrophysiology study for children: can we swallow the limitations? Europace, August 1, 2009; 11(8): 987 - 988. [Full Text] [PDF]
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