[Diagnostic use of adenosine triphosphate in cardiac arrhythmias].

Adenosine triphosphate (ATP) has been used for more than 50 years as a major medication in our therapeutic arsenal for the termination of supraventricular tachycardia crises for which the mechanism is re-entry implicating the atrioventricular node. In the present article other applications of ATP as a diagnostic agent for several cardiac arrhythmias are described: differential diagnosis of narrow or wide QRS tachycardia, diagnosis of a latent accessory pathway (intermittent or hidden), diagnosis of intranodal duality, and non-invasive evaluation of the results of the ablation of the slow pathway, and finally non-invasive diagnosis of the tachycardia mechanism in patients with palpitations or tachycardia with an obscure mechanism.