Use and Abuse of Carotid Sinus Stimulation

Abstract

The effect of carotid sinus stimulation on a tachyarrhythmia, or sometimes the absence of an effect, can be helpful in differential diagnosis. The procedure is also used in therapy of some arrhythmias. Abuse relates to the danger of inducing ventricular fibrillation in patients with digitalis intoxication and to the possibility of precipitating long ventricular standstill in elderly persons.

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Notes on contributors

Edward K. Chung

This month, Dr. Edward K. Chung assumes the editorship of the continuing series in practical cardiology, filling the position relinquished by Dr. Peter C. Gazes, professor of medicine and chief of the division of cardiology, Medical University of South Carolina, Charleston. Postgraduate Medicine is grateful to Dr. Gazes for his valuable contribution as editor of this series for the past two years.

Dr. Chung, who also is the editor of the series in clinical electrocardiography, is a fellow of the American College of Physicians and the American College of Cardiology and a member of the American Federation for Clinical Research and the American Heart Association, Inc.