Interpolated premature ventricular contractions with postponed compensatory pauses: a misnomer?

Selected strips of a Holter recording obtained from a healthy young person with rare unifocal premature ventricular contractions (PVCs) were obtained. Occasionally, the PVCs were interpolated and showed the phenomenon originally named postponed compensatory pause by Langendorf [Am Heart J 1953;46:401]. But this is a misnomer because, by definition, interpolated PVCs do not have compensatory pauses. Thus, it follows that what does not exist cannot be postponed. In reality, the basic manifest feature is a prolongation of the first RR interval that follows the interpolated beat. However, in view of its use for more than half a century, it is probably best to continue using this terminology, but only as long as its underlying mechanism and fundamental manifestations are properly understood.