Cardiac arrhythmias - supraventricular tachycardia
Description
- Tachycardia (>100 bpm) arising at or above the His bundle, requiring atrial or AV nodal tissue for initiation/maintenance
- Conventionally excludes AF, atrial flutter and multifocal AT, which are discussed separately - "SVT" in practice means the paroxysmal regular SVTs
The three that matter
| Share | Circuit | |
|---|---|---|
| AVNRT | ~60% | Re-entry within the AV node using slow + fast pathways |
| AVRT | ~30% | Re-entry using an accessory pathway (bypass tract) |
| Atrial tachycardia | ~10% | Focal atrial automaticity/micro-re-entry; does not need the AV node |
- Others: junctional ectopic tachycardia, inappropriate sinus tachycardia, sinus node re-entry, permanent junctional reciprocating tachycardia (PJRT)
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