Effective termination of reentrant supraventricular tachycardia by single dose oral combination therapy with pindolol and verapamil

Abstract We evaluated the efficacy of single oral dose combining 20 mg pindolol and 120 mg verapamil in termination of paroxysmal supraventricular tachycardia (SVT) in 12 patients with recurrent symptomatic tachycardia. All had electrically inducible SVT lasting longer than 30 minutes. Patients were administered placebo or crushed pindolol and verapamil on 2 consecutive days after tachycardia was electrically induced and allowed to sustain for 30 minutes. With placebo, SVT lasted 186 ± 18 minutes (mean ± SEM); five patients converted spontaneously within 121 to 180 minutes. With pindolol and verapamil, 9 of 12 patients (responders) converted to sinus rhythm within 8 to 74 minutes. The mean duration of SVT in the nine responders was 28 ± 8 minutes compared with 168 ± 20 minutes on placebo ( p p