CAUSE OF PAIRED VENTRICULAR EXTRA-SYSTOLES

Eight patients with ventricular extrasystoles are reported in whom coupling intervals of the extrasystoles to the preceding sinus beats were variable and in whom paired ventricular extrasystoles were occasionally seen. In all patients, paired ventricular extrasystoles were initiated only by comparatively late coupled ventricular extrasystoles. However, the interval between the first and the second of these paired extrasystoles was always much shorter than the coupling interval of this first extrasystole to the preceding sinus beat, so that the latter extrasystole often interrupted the T wave of the first one, indicating the R-on-T phenomenon. In two patients there was a gap between the ranges of coupling intervals for single extrasystoles and for the first ones of paired extrasystoles. These observations suggest the presence of longitudinal dissociation in the reentrant pathway as one of the causes of paired ventricular extrasystoles.