Enhancement of conduction in an accessory pathway by local noncaptured stimuli

Subthreshold stimuli have been reported to prolong the refractory period of myocardial tissue. This report presents the first case of reproducible acceleration of a reentrant tachycardia by apparently subthreshold stimuli delivered to the os of the coronary sinus during the atrial refractory period in a child with incessant orthodromic tachycardia utilizing a posteroseptal pathway. Mechanisms by which these stimuli could influence the tachycardia circuit are proposed, and the potential usefulness of this finding for mapping tachyarrhythmias is discussed.