• Hrvoje Pintarić, Ivan Zeljković, Zdravko Babić, Mislav Vrsalović, Nikola Pavlović, Hrvojka Bosnjak, and Dubravko Petrac.
• Department of Internal Medicine, Sestre milosrdnice University Hospital Centre, Vinogradska cesta 29, 10 000 Zagreb, Croatia. hrvojepintaric@yahoo.com
• Croat. Med. J. 2012 Dec 1; 53 (6): 605-11.

AimTo assess the efficacy of propafenone in prevention of atrioventricular nodal reentrant tachycardia (AVNRT) and orthodromic atrioventricular tachycardia (AVRT) based on the clinical results of arrhythmia recurrence and find the electrophysiological predictor of propafenone effectiveness.MethodsThis retrospective study included 44 participants in a 12-month period, who were divided in two groups: group A - in which propafenone caused complete ventriculo-atrial block and group B - in which propafenone did not cause complete ventriculo-atrial block.ResultsGroup A had significantly lower incidence of tachycardia than group B (95% vs 70.8%, P=0.038), and complete ventriculo-atrial block predicted the efficacy of propafenone oral therapy in the prevention of tachycardia (sensitivity 87.5%, specificity 52.8%, positive predictive value 95%, negative predictive value 29.2%). Patients with AVNRT in group B who did not experience the recurrences of tachycardia had significantly shorter echo zone before intravenous administration of propafenone than the patients who experienced episodes of sustained tachycardia (median 40 ms [range 15-60 ms] vs 79 ms [range 50-180 ms], P=0.008).ConclusionIn patients with non-inducible tachycardia, complete ventriculo-atrial block can be used as an electrophysiological predictor of the efficacy of propafenone oral therapy in the prevention of tachycardia. In patients with non-inducible AVNRT, but without complete ventriculo-atrial block, propafenone was more effective in patients with shorter echo zone of tachycardia.

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