Bundle-branch reentry and the postpacing interval after entrainment by right ventricular apex stimulation: a new approach to elucidate the mechanism of wide-QRS-complex tachycardia with atrioventricular dissociation.

BACKGROUND: Diagnosis of bundle-branch reentry ventricular tachycardia (BBR-VT) by the standard approach is challenging, and this may lead to nonrecognition of this tachycardia mechanism. Because the postpacing interval (PPI) after entrainment has been correlated with the distance from the pacing site to the reentrant circuit, BBR-VT entrainment by pacing from the right ventricular apex (RVA) should result in a PPI similar to the tachycardia cycle length (TCL). This factor may differentiate BBR-VT from other mechanisms of wide-QRS-complex tachycardia with AV dissociation, such as myocardial reentrant VT (MR-VT) or AV nodal reentrant tachycardia (AVNRT), in which the circuit is usually located away from the RVA.

METHODS AND RESULTS: Transient entrainment by RVA pacing was attempted in 18 consecutive BBR-VTs and finally achieved in 13. Results were compared with those found in 59 consecutive MR-VTs and 50 consecutive AVNRTs. The mean PPI-TCL difference was significantly (P:<0.0001) shorter in the BBR-VT group (9+/-11 ms) than in the MR-VT (109+/-48 ms) and the AVNRT (150+/-29 ms) groups. No BBR-VT showed a PPI-TCL >30 ms (range -12 to 24 ms). Except for 2 MR-VTs, no MR-VT (range 21 to 211 ms) or AVNRT (range 100 to 215 ms) showed a PPI-TCL <30 ms.

CONCLUSIONS: A PPI-TCL >30 ms, after entrainment by RVA stimulation, makes BBR-VT unlikely. Conversely, a PPI-TCL <30 ms is suggestive of BBR-VT but should lead to further investigation by use of conventional criteria.