Reddit reviews Braunwald's Heart Disease: A Textbook of Cardiovascular Medicine, 2-Volume Set

> This is what gave me that idea.

I can see where the confusion arose. The operative word in that sentence was synchronized. You don't give people unsynchronized shocks, I didn't mean to imply that default treatment for VT is cardioversion.

> If you are segregating tachycardias purely by their anatomical source, sure. Most cardiologists, intensivists, and physicians I know use the term "SVT" to refer specifically to paroxysmal SVT, and use the more specific names of the other "supraventricular" tachycardias when discussing them to avoid confusion.

Maybe this is a regional thing as I'm not in the US, but that is not a common term here.

I looked into it, this is what Braunwald has to say:
>Tachyarrhythmias are boardly characterized as supraventricular tachycardia (SVT), defined as a tachycardia in which the driving circuit or focus originates, at least in part, in tissue above the level of the ventricle [..] and ventricular tachycardia (VT)

Which is more or less literally what I told you before. Neither paroxysmal SVT nor PSVT are mentioned.

After some searching this guideline mentions the following definition:
> Episodes of regular and paroxysmal palpitations with sudden onset and termination (also referred to as PSVT)

So basically all SVT except for afib (although patients might not be able to distinguish regular and fast from irregular and fast).

> If I was trying to communicate to another physician that a patient has A fib, I wouldn't use the term SVT, that's just asking for trouble.

If I knew the diagnosis, I would just tell them the diagnosis.

>Lol, OK. I guess my lowly pediatrics training wasn't good enough to impress you, you mysterious heart expert.

Don't be butthurt when you're the one that brought it up. I didn't imply anything negative about pediatrics.