Rapid atrial pacing-induced infra-His conduction block in children

High right atrial pacing (abrupt initiation and random coupling to the spontaneous rhythm) was performed in 285 pediatric cardiac patients for diagnostic purposes. Nine patients (3%) were found to have pacing-induced infra-His conduction block. In two patients this occurred following a preceding long cycle as well as a preceding short-to-long sequence cycle length change. In five patients block occurred with an abrupt shortening of the coupling H-H interval (in three patients the infra-His block initiated a series of 2:1 infra-His block). In two patients with type II second-degree atrioventricular block the initiating events were not recorded. In one of them, when the rapid atrial pacing was incremented to the same cycle length with infra-His block, the atrioventricular response became 1:1 with normal conduction. These findings of pacing-induced infra-His conduction block can be explained by the normal response of the His-Purkinje system to changes in the preceding cycle lengths, and to the abrupt shortening of the coupling interval.