American heart journal
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American heart journal · Mar 1989
The effect of drugs and lead maturation on atrial electrograms during sinus rhythm and atrial fibrillation.
Antitachycardia devices need more accurate means to identify arrhythmias. Previous studies have found that sinus rhythm can be distinguished from a variety of tachyarrhythmias by algorithms that are based on time-domain and frequency-domain analysis of intracardiac electrograms. Amplitude distribution analysis (time-domain) and power density spectral analysis (frequency-domain) are two of the techniques that have seemed to hold promise. ⋯ Isoproterenol, lidocaine, verapamil, and propranolol had no consistent effects on amplitude distribution analysis of atrial electrograms during sinus rhythm or atrial fibrillation. However, there were marked effects of drugs on amplitude distribution characteristics in individual dogs. Propranolol and lidocaine produced consistent changes in power density spectra during sinus rhythm and atrial fibrillation, respectively; both drugs reduced the ability of power density spectral analysis to differentiate sinus rhythm from atrial fibrillation.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)