Computer simulation of overdrive pacing during atrioventricular reentrant tachycardia

The study used a computer model of cardiac excitation to reproduce atrioventricular (AV) reentrant tachycardia and to evaluate the possibility of its termination by overdrive burst pacing. The model simulated activation waves radiating along a one-dimensional circular pathway, the portions of which represented the atrial, AV nodal, His-Purkinje, ventricular, and bypass parts of the tachycardia circuit. The pathway consisted of 289 elements. Only depolarised and resting states of elements were modelled. Differential refractoriness and conduction velocity for each element and the cycle length dependence of AV nodal decremental conduction were introduced. The experiments with the model examined the ability of overdrive 'on-circuit' pacing to terminate the tachycardia in order to determine the relevance of: (a) the coupling interval of the first beat in the burst; (b) the cycle length of the burst; (c) the number of stimuli in the burst; (d) His-Purkinje refractoriness; and (e) the degree of AV nodal decremental conduction. The results suggested that: (A) the general impression of a regular recovery wave and of a regular excitable window moving uniformly along the macro-reentrant circular path is incorrect; (B) the use of overdrive bursts of several stimuli with a short coupling interval has unpredictable effects; (C) the use of faster bursts with a cycle length only slightly shorter than the tachycardia cycle length is more safe (with respect to tachycardia reinitiation) and for certain combinations of the coupling interval and cycle length, prolonged bursts do not reinitiate the tachycardia; (D) the likelihood of tachycardia termination is increased by prolonging the refractoriness of the tachycardia circuit and by reducing AV nodal decremental conduction.