Frequency of atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia and atrioventricular reciprocating tachycardia in patients with paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia

Objective: to evaluate the frequencies of atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia (avnrt) and atrioventricular reciprocating tachycardia (avrt) on electrophysiological studies in patients presenting with paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (psvt) on 12 lead surface ecg. patients and method: we performed a cross sectional study of 88 patients from june 28,2011 to january 22,2012 presenting in electrophysiology department with a diagnosis of psvt on surface ecg. all patients underwent electrophysiological studies after necessary investigations and their type of arrhythmia were noted. frequency of avnrt and avrt was confirmed after electrophysiological studies. other less common types of psvt and subtypes of avrt and avnrt on electrophysiology were also noted. results: a total of 88 patients with a diagnosis of psvt on surface ecg were analyzed. of these,87 (98.9%) patients had palpitation while 1(1.1%) patient had syncope at the time of presentation. overall,avnrt was the predominant mechanism 47(53%),followed by avrt 40(45%) and atrial tachycardia (at) 1(1%). among avnrt,46(97.9%) patients had slow/fast type of avnrt while 1(2.1%) patient had fast/slow type of avnrt. while on the other hand all patients 40 (100%) had orthodromic type of avrt. there was a strong relationship between age and psvt mechanism; the proportion of avrt in both sexes decreases with age,whereas proportion of avnrt increases as the age advances. conclusions: avnrt is more frequent mechanism of tachycardia as compared to avrt in patients with psvt.