Termination of tachycardias by interrupting blood flow to the arrhythmogenic area.

The hypothesis that production of ischemia or cooling of an arrhythmogenic area or pathway could interrupt tachycardias was tested by subselective catheterization of the coronary artery supplying the site of origin of ventricular tachycardia (9 patients), the accessory pathway (2 patients) and the site of origin of atrial tachycardia (1 patient). Ventricular tachycardia was reproducibly terminated and reinduction temporarily prevented in 8 of the 9 patients by occlusion of the artery or administration of iced isotonic saline. Block in the accessory pathway was obtained in 1 of the 2 patients with Wolff-Parkinson-White syndrome. Selective cooling through the atrioventricular nodal artery in 1 patient terminated his circus movement tachycardia. Reproducible termination of a continuous atrial tachycardia was obtained by cooling of the atrial branch supplying the site of origin of the arrhythmia. These data demonstrate the feasibility of identification and selective catheterization of the coronary artery branch supplying blood to an arrhythmogenic area or pathway and suggest a new possibility for treatment of tachycardias by permanently blocking the blood supply to the site of origin or pathway of a tachycardia.