[Supraventricular tachycardias induced by swallowing].

The authors report the case of a 34 year old woman admitted to hospital for attacks of atrial tachycardia inducing very poorly tolerated junctional tachycardia at 260 beats/min. The attacks were always induced by swallowing and could be reproduced at will. Electrophysiological studies could only be undertaken after the administration of large doses of amiodarone. An exclusively retrograde rapidly conducting paranodal accessory pathway was demonstrated with triggering of runs of reentrant tachycardia. No underlying gastro-oesophageal or cardiac disease apart from thromboembolism was found. Swallowing-induced supraventricular tachycardia is rare and possible mechanisms are discussed. The arrhythmia may be triggered by direct mechanical stimulation, by changes in vagosympathetic tone, or by an association of the two phenomena. Previously published reports describe similar clinical situations resulting from a variety of different mechanisms.