All issues > Volume 35(3); 1992

Original Article

J Korean Pediatr Soc. 1992;35(3):355-363. Published online March 15, 1992.

Effucact of Adenosine Triphosphate in Infants and Children with Supraventricular Tachycardia

Yae Kyung YK Suh¹, Chung Il CI Noh¹

¹Department of Pediatrics, Seoul National University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea

Abstract

Acute tachyarrhythmia in infancy and childhood may be life-threatening if it is not treated promptly and accurately. The selection of a safe and effective pharmacologic agent is work in hand. We tried ATP (adenosine triphosphate) to pediatric patients with acute epidsodes of supraventricular tachycardia for therapeutic or diagnostic purpose and determined the safety and effectiveness of the drug. ATP was given 49 time to 25 patients who were diagnosed as acute supraventricular tachycardia from February 1987 to August 1990. The efficacy criteria were the cessation of tachycardia or the transient atrioventricular block to reveal the site of tachycardia. 1) ATP was effective in 41 of 43 junctional tachycardia (95%), 3 of 3 atrial flutter (100%) 0 of 3 sinus and ventricular tachycardia (0%). 2) The success rate of ATP in infants was 91.6%(11/12). The only failure was the misdiagnosed case with sinus tachycardia. 3) The mean dose of response was 6.41mg (3-15mg, 0.70mg/kg). 4) The site of block by ATP was identified in 8 cases with junctional tachycardia. In 5 cases, they showed the block of antegrade pathway and in 3 cases, retrograde pathwasy. 5) The side effects were frequent but negligible. The episodes of tachycardia recurred in 14 cases (31.8%) and initial recurrence rate within 1hour was 20.5%(9/44). In conclusion, ATP is a safe and effective pharmacologic agent in diagnosis and treatment of supraventricular tachycardia, especially in infants.

Keywords :ATP, Supraventricular tachycardia, Infant, Children