Pierre Louis

• Master's Student at Universität Potsdam

Atrial fibrillation (AF) and atrial flutter (AFL) are frequently associated. The purpose of the study was to look for the effect of antiarrhythmic drugs (AAD) on the risk of AF occurrence after radiofrequency ablation of AFL. Methods 1121 patients, mean age 64±12 years, were referred for AFL ablation. History, data of echocardiography, antiarrhyth...

Too often, tachycardias of elderly patients are medically treated without evaluation of their mechanism. The purpose of the study was to look for the influence of age on clinical and electrophysiological data and long-term follow-up of patients with paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (SVT). Methods SVT was induced in 1690 patients, 996 female...

Introduction: Atrial fibrillation (AF) and flutter (AFL) are frequently associated. We assessed the frequency and identified the predictors of AF occurrence after AFL ablation. Methods and results: A total of 1,121 patients referred for AFL ablation were followed for a mean duration of 2.1 ± 2.7 years. Antiarrhythmic drugs were stopped after abl...

Introduction: Atrial fibrillation (AF) and atrial flutter (AFL) are frequently associated. The aim of the study was to look for the prevalence of previous history of AF in patients referred for radiofrequency ablation of AFL and the possible causes. Methods: 1061 patients, 819 males, 242 females, mean age 64±12 years were referred for ablation of r...

Unlabelled: Little is known about the epidemiology of 1:1 atrial flutter (AFL). Our objectives were to determine its prevalence and predisposing conditions. Methods: 1037 patients aged 16 to 93 years (mean 64±12) were consecutively referred for AFL ablation. 791 had heart disease (HD). Patients admitted with 1/1 AFL were collected. Patients were...

Programmed ventricular stimulation (PVS) after myocardial infarction (MI) was used 20 years ago to stratify arrhythmic risks. Recent studies recommend PVS early after MI to detect a risk of ventricular tachycardia (VT) and sudden death (SD). The purpose of the study was to look for the actual prognostic significance of inducible ventricular arrhyth...

Background Patients with heart disease (HD) and syncope are at high risk of sudden death. Implantable defibrillator (ICD) is recommended in patients with unexplained syncope and left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) < 30% or in patients with LVEF >30% and inducible ventricular tachycardia (VT). Aim The purpose of the study was to evaluate the...

The risk of atrial fibrillation (AF) in patients with paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) is well-known. AF is a cause of embolic event and a risk of stroke in patients with SVT can be expected. The purpose of the study was to assess the prevalence of unexplained stroke in patients presenting with SVT and to look for the risk factors. Me...

Radiofrequency (RF) ablation is a treatment of choice of typical atrial flutter (AFl). However the risk of atrial fibrillation (AF) is high. Heart disease (HD) presence may modify this risk. The purpose of the study was to look for the role of associated HD on previous history of AF and later occurrence of AF after AFl ablation. Methods 965 patien...

Supraventricular reentrant tachycardia (SVT) can be due to atrioventricular node reentrant tachycardia (AVNRT) or atrioventricular reentrant tachycardia (AVRT) in a concealed or an overt accessory pathway (AP) in patients with a Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome (WPW). The purpose of the study was to look for the mode of SVT induction and to correlate...

The management and prognosis of heart diseases (HD) or arrhythmias may depend on the patient gender. The purpose of the study was to look for the influence of gender on the indications and the long-term results of ablation of atrial flutter (AFl). Methods 965 patients, 743 males, 222 females (23%), mean age 64 ± 12 years were consecutively referre...

Aims Orthodromic atrioventricular reentrant tachycardia (ORT) is the most common arrhythmia at electrophysiological study (EPS) in patients with pre-excitation. The purpose of the study was to determine the clinical significance and the electrophysiological characteristics of patients with inducible antidromic tachycardia (ADT).Methods and resultsE...

Electrocardiographic criteria of preexcitation syndrome are sometimes not visible on ECG in sinus rhythm (SR). The purpose of the study was to evaluate the significance of unapparent preexcitation syndrome in SR, when overt conduction through accessory pathway (AP) was noted at atrial pacing.Methods Anterograde conduction through atrioventricular A...

Programmed ventricular stimulation (PVS) was proposed after myocardial infarction (MI) more than 25 years ago, but the management of MI has changed during this period. The purpose of the study was to look for the results of systematic PVS after MI according to the period of indication and remaining indications. Methods PVS was performed between 19...

Ventricular tachycardia (VT) is considered as the main cause for syncope after myocardial infarction (MI). Multiple other causes have been reported. When left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) is low (35%), the implantation of a defibrillator (ICD) is recommended. The mortality of these patients (pts) remains relatively high. The purpose of stud...

Atrioventricular reentrant tachycardia (AVRT) is frequent in Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome (WPW). Atrial fibrillation (AF) is rare. The purpose of the study was to determine the factors of spontaneous AF in WPW according to the initial presentation. Electrophysiological study (EPS) was performed among 709 patients with a preexcitation syndrome. Fi...

Background Multiple factors, in addition to left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) influence the risk of mortality in coronary artery disease. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the main causes of syncope after myocardial infarction (MI) and to propose an algorithm of management.Methods356 patients consecutively admitted for syncope and h...

The results of programmed ventricular stimulation (PVS) may change after myocardial infarction (MI). The objective was to study the factors that could predict the results of a second PVS. Left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and QRS duration were determined and PVS performed within 3 to 14 years of one another (mean 7.5+/-5) in 50 patients stu...

Electrophysiological study (EPS) is recommended in Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome (WPW). Induction of orthodromic AV reentrant tachycardia (AVRT) is the most frequent. Atrial fibrillation (AF) induction is associated with the prognosis of WPW. Less is known on the induction of antidromic tachycardia (ATD). The purpose of the study was to determine...

Fine-QRS complex tachycardia alternating with wide-QRS complex tachycardia can lead to an erroneous diagnosis of paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) with or without aberrancy. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the incidence and the significance of the association of SVT and ventricular tachycardia (VT) in the same patient. Populati...

Radiofrequency (RF) ablation of typical atrial flutter (AFl) is largely used to restore and maintain a sinus rhythm. Little is known on the risk of a third degree atrioventricular block (AVB). The purpose of the study was to evaluate the incidence and the causes of iatrogenic complete AVB during RF ablation of a typical AFl. Population AFl ablation...

Ventricular tachycardia (VT) may explain syncope after myocardial infarction (MI) and is in this case is associated with a high risk of sudden death, mainly in association with low left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF). Programmed ventricular stimulation (PVS) remains the main method to look for VT. The purpose of the study was to look for the...

We report the case of a 51-year-old patient who developed a complete atrioventricular (AV) block during the isthmic radiofrequency catheter ablation of a typical atrial flutter. The cause was an acute occlusion of the segment three of the right coronary artery. His recanalization was associated with the immediate restoration of a normal AV conducti...

IntroductionThe purpose of the study was to determine the possible mechanisms of presyncope in patients who have paroxysmal junctional tachycardias (PJT) and a normal surface ECG between tachycardias.

The purpose of the study was to determine the possible mechanisms of presyncope in patients who have paroxysmal junctional tachycardias (PJT) and a normal surface ECG between tachycardias. Among 419 patients consecutively recruited for PJT, aged from 10 to 88 years (47+/-19), 78 of them had presented at least one syncope; they had a normal ECG in s...

Syncope in Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) syndrome may reveal an arrhythmic event or is not WPW syndrome related. The aim of the study is to evaluate the results of electrophysiological study in WPW syndrome according to the presence or not of syncope and the possible causes of syncope. Among 518 consecutive patients with diagnosis of WPW syndrome, 71...

The significance of atrial fibrillation (AF) in idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (IDCM) remains discussed. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the clinical significance of permanent atrial fibrillation in patients with IDCM. Systematic noninvasive and invasive studies including Holter monitoring, measurement of left ventricular ejection fract...

Supraventricular tachyarrhythmias (SVTA) are an accepted cause of cardiac arrest in patients with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome (WPW) and hypertrophic cardiomyopathy but their participation in other conditions is less well understood. The purpose of the study was to examine the role of SVTA in sudden cardiac arrest (SCA) by comprehensive evaluatio...

Dr. Juan Guzman 1 , Isabel Cardona 1 , Carlos Morillo 11 McMaster University, Hamilton, Canada Background: The pathophysiology of postural orthostatic tachycardia syndrome (POTS) is poorly understood. Objective: To assess the cardiovascular dynamics (CVD) in patients with POTS during orthostatic stress. Methodology: Twelve patients with chronic ort...

Unlabelled: The prognosis for patients with complications and syncope following myocardial infarction depends on the left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) and the mechanism of the syncope. The aim of this study was to evaluate the results of an electrophysiological study (EPS) following isoproterenol infusion in patients with a negative EPS un...

Supraventricular arrhythmias are considered to be benign when the ventricular rate is slowed and treated by anticoagulants. The aim of this study was to determine the possible influence of these arrhythmias in resuscitated cardiac arrest. Between 1980 and 2002, 151 patients were admitted after a cardiac arrest. Supraventricular arrhythrmias were id...

The purpose of the study was to evaluate the interests of electrophysiologic study (EPS) after infusion of isoproterenol in patients with syncope and negative EPS in control state. 1350 patients were consecutively admitted for syncope and EPS. Patients were included if they had no history of tachycardia, a normal Holter monitoring, a negative EPS i...

Isoprenaline (isoproterenol) is a beta-adrenergic drug, used to increase the heart rate and, during electrophysiological study, to facilitate the induction of supraventricular (SVT) and ventricular tachycardias (VT). Decrease in heart rate during isoprenaline infusion is a rare phenomenon. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the incidence, the...

The significance of atrial fibrillation or tachycardia (AF) induction remains debatable. Some believe that the presence of heart disease (HD) increases the sensitivity and decreases the specificity of programmed atrial stimulation (PAS). There are few data in patients without HD. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the results of PAS in asympt...

Aim: The purpose of this study was to determine the factors associated with the induction of ventricular flutter/fibrillation (VFl/VF)and its prognostic significance in post-myocardial infarction. Programmed ventricular stimulation was performed after myocardial infarction (MI) for syncope (n = 232) or systematically (n = 755); 230 patients had an...

The causes of adverse prognosis of patients with primary dilated cardiomyopathy remain controversial. Classically, it is thought that syncope is associated with an increased risk of mortality. The aim of this study was to try and identify the causes and prognostic significance of syncope in patients with primary dilated cardiomyopathy. Sixty-five p...

Noninvasive studies are often negative in patients with syncope, normal surface ECG and without heart disease. The purpose of the study was to determine the diagnostic impact of an esophageal electrophysiological study performed during a consultation. A total of 154 patients aged from 16 to 87 years were consecutively recruited for unexplained sync...

This study evaluated the causes of syncope and the significance and differences in left ventricular (LV) dysfunction, coronary disease, and idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM). Risk stratification of and indications for an automated defibrillator could differ according to the cause of LV dysfunction. Electrophysiologic study, including atrial a...

The induction of a ventricular tachycardia (VT) after myocardial infarction (MI) is associated with a high risk of VT and sudden death (SD) in asymptomatic patients; the purpose of the study was to know if syncope modifies the results of programmed ventricular stimulation (PVS) and the clinical consequences.Methods. – PVS using two and three extra...

Unlabelled: The induction of a ventricular tachycardia (VT) after myocardial infarction (MI) is associated with a high risk of VT and sudden death (SD) in asymptomatic patients; the purpose of the study was to know if syncope modifies the results of programmed ventricular stimulation (PVS) and the clinical consequences. Methods: PVS using two an...

The prevalence of AF is known to increase in the elderly. Some electrophysiological changes were reported in these patients, but the effects of age on AF inducibility and other electrophysiological signs associated with atrial vulnerability are unknown. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the effects of age on atrial vulnerability and AF induc...

Syncope is considered to be a clinical sign predictive of sudden death in patients with a previous history of myocardial infarction. The aim of this study was to determine the prognostic factors in this population. The study population included 228 patients with myocardial infarction over one month old and who had no documented ventricular tachycar...

External cardioversion is used to stop VT or VF in emergency. Supraventricular tachyarrhythmias are sometimes noted after cardioversion in patients known to be previously in sinus rhythm. The purpose of the study was to evaluate the significance of supraventricular tachyarrhythmias induced by external cardioversion. The study population consisted o...

The purpose of this study was to determine the causes and the prognosis of consecutive patients resuscitated from cardiac arrest occurring in a general hospital. We assessed 28 females and 94 males (aged 13-82 years) who were resuscitated from cardiac arrest not attributable to acute myocardial infarction. Ventricular fibrillation (VF) was document...

The interest of electrohysiological study for the prognostic evaluation of asymptomatic Wolff-Parkinson-White (WPW) syndrome remains controversial. We report the case of an asymptomatic 67-year-old man without heart disease in whom a type A WPW syndrome was noted. Because the WPW was unchanged during exercise testing, transesophageal EPS was perfor...

The purpose of the study was to look for the predictor factors of atrial proarrhythmic effects of class I antiarrhythmic drugs. Class I antiarrhythmic drugs may induce or exacerbate cardiac arrhythmias. The predictors of ventricular proarrhythmia are known. The predictors of atrial flutter with 1:1 conduction are unknown. Clinical history, EGG, sig...

At the time of the curative treatment of paroxysmal junctional tachycardias, to determine the mechanism of the tachycardia is important. Five-hundred forty intracardiac or esophageal electrophysiological studies were performed in patients aged from 9 to 86 years and then revieved. There was no preexcitation syndrome on surface ECG. Programmed atria...

D,l sotalol is an antiarrhythmic widely used for treating ventricular excitability, especially ventricular tachycardia (VT). The means of assessing its efficacy is 24 hour Holter monitoring and programmed ventricular stimulation. High amplification ECG has also been proposed for predicting the effects of the drug on the induction of VT. The aim of...

D,l sotalol is an antiarrhythmic widely used for treating ventricular excitability, especially ventricular tachycardia (VT). The means of assessing its efficacy is 24 hour Holter monitoring and programmed ventricular stimulation. High amplification ECG has also been proposed for predicting the effects of the drug on the induction of VT. The aim of...

The association of different types of tachycardia in a given patient is a well-known phenomenon and the development of ablative methods rises hopes that treatment of one of them may suppress the others. The aim of this study was to determine the significance of induction of atrial flutter or fibrillation (AF) during electrophysiological investigati...

The induction of atrial tachyarrhythmias (ATAs) is used to guide the medical or ablative treatment of these tachycardias. To date no information is available regarding the reproducibility of programmed atrial stimulation (PAS) induced ATA. The purpose of the study was to look for the reproducibility of PAS. Two baseline electrophysiological tests w...

The Multicenter Automatic Defibrillator Implantation Trial (MADIT) has recently confirmed the role of programmed ventricular stimulation (PVS) to identify the high risk patients of sudden death after myocardial infarction and to prevent this risk. The purpose of this study was to evaluate the long-term reproducibility of PVS in these patients. Thir...

The clinical significance of rapid monomorphic ventricular tachycardia (VT) (> 270 beats/min), also called ventricular flutter, remains controversial in patients without documented spontaneous sustained VT. The aim of this study was to evaluate the outcome of 115 patients with ischaemic heart disease, aged 58 +/- 10 years, without spontaneous ventr...

The clinical significance of rapid monomorphic ventricular tachycardia (VT) (> 270 beats/min), also called ventricular flutter, remains controversial in patients without documented spontaneous sustained VT. The aim of this study was to evaluate the outcome of 11S patients with ischaemic heart disease, aged 58 +/- 10 years, without spontaneous ventr...

Supraventricular tachyarrhythmias (SVTA) may occur in patients with the arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia (ARVD). The purpose of the study was to evaluate the incidence of SVTA in 47 patients with ARVD proved by right ventricular angiography. Thirty-three men and 14 women, aged 21 to 72 years (mean 44 +/- 18) were admitted for nonsustained...

The reproducibility of programmed ventricular stimulation has been previously demonstrated for periods of a few hours to several months. It has not been studied over longer intervals. The aim of this study was to assess the reproducibility of the method at long-term (> 2 years). Forty-six patients with underlying cardiac disease underwent two progr...

Programmed atrial stimulation is a technique increasingly used to assess different pathologies but the reproducibility of the results is totally unknown. The aim of this study was to determine its reproducibility. Two electrophysiological studies were undertaken without antiarrhythmic therapy in an interval of one to three months (average 18 months...

1/1 atrial tachycardia or "quinidine" flutter under class I antiarrhythmic drugs is a serious complication of these agents which, unfortunately, cannot be anticipated. The aim of this study was to review the cases of 11 patients who had suffered this complication of class I antiarrhythmic therapy to see if it could have been prevented. All drugs of...

Prolapsed mitral valve prolapse (PMV) is classically associated with disorders of ventricular excitability whose significance is unclear. However, syncope can suggest the possibility of a serious ventricular arrhythmia. The objective of this study was to try to identify the mechanisms of dizziness and syncope associated with PMV. We report the resu...

The purpose of the study was to report the prevalence of inducible supraventricular tachyarrhythmias (SVTA) in 827 consecutive patients aged 17 to 90 years who did not have spontaneous documented SVTA and who had unexplained presyncope and/or syncope. The electrophysiologic study (EPS) included programmed atrial and ventricular stimulation up to tw...

In order to determine whether signal-averaged electrocardiography was useful in the diagnosis of syncopal ventricular tachycardia, 244 subjects with malaise or unexplained syncope without documented ventricular tachycardia underwent endocavitary electrophysiological study and signal-averaged electrocardiography with a 25 Hz bandpass filter. Ninety-...

The prognostic significance of ventricular tachyarrhythmias induced by programmed ventricular stimulation was evaluated in 492 consecutive survivors of acute myocardial infarction (AMI). Holter monitoring, signal-averaged electrocardiogram (ECG) and measurement of left ventricular ejection fraction (EF) were also performed. The protocol used up to...

The authors report a new method of studying the autonomic nervous system, especially vagal tone, during endocavitary electrophysiological studies. After termination of fixed ventricular pacing at incremental rates to 200/min, an initial acceleration of the heart rate is observed followed about 5 seconds later by a sudden slowing. This phenomenon wa...

The authors report the prognostic value of ventricular arrhythmias induced by routine programmed ventricular stimulation after the acute phase of myocardial infarction. The protocol consisted of two extrastimuli in the first 185 patients and 3 extrastimuli in 308 patients. The use of 3 extrastimuli increased the incidence of inducible sustained mon...

The aim of this study was to report the probable mechanism of resuscitated cardiac arrest without acute myocardial infarction. Fifty-seven cases were recensed but the arrest was only documented in 44 subjects. Systematic non-invasive investigations and programmed stimulation showed that the diagnosis of cardiac arrest was probably false in 5 patien...

Idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy carries a high risk of sudden death. It is also associated with sustained ventricular tachycardia. A complex ventricular arrhythmia is recorded in 3/4 of cases on Holter monitoring which has a low specificity. The aim of the study was to determine whether signal-averaged electrocardiography could provide a better e...

Arrhythmogenic right ventricular dysplasia (ARVD) is classically associated with ventricular tachycardia and the prevalence of supraventricular tachycardia in this condition is not well known. The aim of this study was to observe the response of 20 patients with ARVD to programmed atrial stimulation and compare it with 150 subjects without cardiac...

The aim of this study was to identify the factors associated with the induction of ventricular tachycardia (TV) by programmed ventricular stimulation in patients with unexplained syncope. Sustained VT was induced in 71 out of 619 patients (11.5%) with syncope. A comparison of subjects with inducible VT and those without inducible VT showed underlyi...

Programmed ventricular stimulation risks inducing non-pathological ventricular fibrillo-flutter. The aim of this study was to determine if the induction of a non-sustained polymorphic ventricular tachycardia (over 5 intraventricular reentries) could prevent this incident. One hundred and thirty-three non-sustained polymorphic tachycardias were indu...

In order to determine the cause of syncopes or disorders of conduction, 584 programmed stimulations using 2 ventricular extrastimuli delivered during an imposed rhythm were performed, between 1981 and 1985, in patients without ventricular tachycardia (VT) proven by Holter recordings. Eighty-seven non-sustained VT (NSVT) (15%), 8 ventricular fibrill...

Between 1974 and 1984, 207 patients with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome (WPW) were admitted to our hospital department; 195 of them were followed up for periods ranging from 1 to 12 years (6 years in children, 3 years and 9 months in adults on average); 160 had undergone electrophysiological exploration. Fifty-seven patients were less than 16 years...