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Arrhythmias in Pediatric Patients

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Management of Cardiac Arrhythmias

Part of the book series: Contemporary Cardiology ((CONCARD))

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Abstract

Most of the fundamental principles of adult cardiac electrophysiology describing cellular activation and repolarization and propagation of the action potential in cardiac tissue can be applied to the pediatric age group directly and with little alteration. However, the manifestations of arrhythmic disease and the clinical approach to their management are quite different in children compared to adults. Certain categories of arrhythmia that are of major interest to the adult electrophysiologist because of their associated risks of sudden death and other major adverse outcomes, such as atrial fibrillation (AF) and ventricular tachycardia (VT) occurring after myocardial infarction (MI), are rare in the pediatric age group. Conversely, supraventricular arrhythmias and especially atrioventricular (AV) reciprocating tachycardias are commonly identified in children, the majority of whom are otherwise healthy and free from abnormalities of cardiac structure or function. Thus, our understanding of the natural history of arrhythmias in children is more strongly based on the recording of symptoms reported by healthy patients with supraventricular tachycardia (SVT), an outcome that is rather difficult to measure. For this reason, it has often been difficult to apply to pediatric arrhythmia syndromes the same rigorous epidemiological tools that have been used to characterize the natural history and response to therapy of adult problems of greater prevalence and severity.

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  1. John K. Triedman MD
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Editors and Affiliations

  1. Cardiovascular Institute, University of Pittsburgh Medical Center, Pittsburgh, PA, USA

    Leonard I. Ganz MD

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Triedman, J.K. (2002). Arrhythmias in Pediatric Patients. In: Ganz, L.I. (eds) Management of Cardiac Arrhythmias. Contemporary Cardiology. Humana Press, Totowa, NJ. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-090-2_20

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-59259-090-2_20

  • Publisher Name: Humana Press, Totowa, NJ

  • Print ISBN: 978-1-61737-218-6

  • Online ISBN: 978-1-59259-090-2

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