H-V Interval Prolongation

Excerpt

To the editor: Your admirable annotated bibliography of cardiovascular disease (1) in the May issue is marred by one serious misquotation. Reference 87, under the subheading of electrophysiology, cites the paper by Altschuler and associates (2) on the significance of isolated H-V (interval) prolongation in symptomatic patients without proven heart block. Your reviewer states, "Patients with central nervous system symptoms and H-V intervals > 60 ms were at high risk of early sudden death or progression to high-grade heart block. Mortality and morbidity were significantly reduced by pacemaker implantation." This statement is a serious misrepresentation of a very interesting study.