[Transcutaneous stimulation of the heart ventricles: its effectiveness, comfort during the examination and new...

An attempt of assessment of transcutaneous cardiac pacing tolerance in healthy volunteers was carried out as well as abilities of this method utilization for examination of retrograde atrioventricular conduction. Ventricles were paced through highohm electrodes positioned on the chest wall with simultaneous recordings of transoesophageal ecg at the level of the left atrium and the sphygmogram of the right common corotid artery. Pacing perception threshold, skeletal muscle stimulation threshold, cardiac pacing threshold, algesic and myo-respiratory threshold of examination tolerance were estimated. Effective ventricular pacing within the range of stimulation tolerance was obtained in 10 of 15 patients (67%). Mean ventricular pacing threshold was higher than pacing perception and skeletal muscles stimulation thresholds (42 mA; 9.4 mA and 20.2 mA). Ventricular pacing threshold was lower than algesic and muscles thresholds of examination tolerance (60-70 mA) warranting relatively good tolerance of transcutaneous cardiac ventricular pacing. In 8 of 10 persons with effective ventricular stimulation retrograde a-v nodal conduction was stated which proved that transcutaneous cardiac ventricular stimulation can be used for noninvasive assessment of retrograde a-v nodal conduction.