Abstract des Autors

Ventricular pre-excitation (VPE) is a condition in which the whole ventricular myocardium or part of it, is activated by the atrial impulse through the abnormal atrioventricular pathway. This condition becomes clinically important if arrhythmic crises (supraventricular paroxysmal tachycardia; atrial flutter; atrial fibrillation) are present. Non-invasive evaluation of the risk of dangerous arrhythmias (which may cause ventricular tachycardia and/or ventricular fibrillation) is necessary in people with VPE who play sports. Transoesophageal atrial stimulation, both at rest and during stress test, is an easy quick method to get the most prognostic data. For this reason it is useful to screen all people with VPE even if asymptomatic. The following is a report on 19 subjects with VPE who played competitive sports. Eighteen subjects showed hyperkinetic ventricular arrhythmias after transoesophageal atrial pacing both at rest and during effort. Three of them showed dangerous arrhythmias and underwent an intracavitary electrophysiological test. Four subjects showed atrial fibrillation only with atrial stimulation during effort. Verf.-Referat