Diagnostic value of esophageal pacing in different types of atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia

AIM:To study the diagnostic accuracy of esophageal pacing in different types of atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia (AVNRT). METHODS: One hundred and ninetysix patients were diagnosed with AVNRT by intracardiac electrophysiology and the results were compared with the findings of esophageal pacing. RESULTS: The coincidence rate of the two methods in diagnosing the slowfast AVNRT was 100%. However, esophageal pacing was not very effective in discriminating the fastslow AVNRT and slowslow AVNRT from atrial tachycardia. CONCLUSION: Esophageal pacing is of high diagnostic value only in the slowfast form of AVNRT. For accurate diagnosis of fastslow AVNRT and slowslow AVNRT, intracardiac electrophysiology should be performed.