Swallowing-induced atrial tachyarrhythmias successfully ablated at the left posterior interatrial septum in patient with wolff-Parkinson-white syndrome

Korean Circ J. 2015 May;45(3):253-8. doi: 10.4070/kcj.2015.45.3.253. Epub 2015 May 27.

Abstract

We reported a case of a 55-year-old patient who presented with palpitation after swallowing. Initial surface electrocardiogram revealed ventricular preexcitation utilizing a left lateral bypass tract. The orthodromic atrioventricular reentrant tachycardia (AVRT) was induced during electrophysiologic studies. After successful ablation of the AVRT utilizing a left lateral free wall bypass tract, 2 different atrial tachycardias (ATs) were induced under isoproterenol infusion. When the patient swallowed saliva or drank water, 2 consecutive beats of atrial premature complexes (APCs) preceded another non-sustained AT repeatedly, which was coincident with the patient's symptom. The preceding APC couplet had the same activation sequence with one induced AT, and the subsequent non-sustained AT had the same activation sequence with the other induced AT, respectively. We first targeted the preceding 2 consecutive APCs at the left posterior interatrial septum. The following non-sustained AT was also eliminated following ablation of the APCs. After ablation, the patient remained free from the swallowing-induced atrial tachyarrhythmias during the one year follow-up.

Keywords: Atrial tachycardia; Catheter ablation; Deglutition.