LAUSR

A general perception persists that patients with atrioventricular nodal reentry tachycardia (AVNRT) frequently show distinctive personality traits, attributed empirically to age (fifties) and gender (female), but no relevant studies have been performed in this setting. The present research aims to compare personality and temperamental type of patients with AVNRT and atrioventricular reentrant tachycardia (AVRT). Consecutive patients from two hospitals were prospectively enrolled. Inclusion criteria consisted of electrocardiogram (ECG) confirming symptomatic supraventricular tachycardia and ablation acceptance. Exclusion criteria consisted of significant morbidity (including anxiety, depression, and personality disorders), treatment with benzodiazepines, serotonin inhibitors and beta-blockers or refusal to participate. The study was approved by the Ethics Committee on Human Research. All patients provided written informed consent. Eysenck Personality Inventory (EPI) was administered at the outpatient clinic before ablation and after a 6-month follow-up period. Eysenck Personality Inventory [1] is comprised of 24 items for extraversion and 24 items for neuroticism. Each item is answered with ‘yes’ or ‘no’ and rated as either 0 or 1. Total extraversion and neuroticism scores range from 0 to 24 points, with higher values representing greater extraversion and/or neuroticism. The extraversion is linked to the degree of excitation of the central nervous system and is defined as a compound of impulsivity and sociability. The neuroticism indicates the degree of excitation of the autonomic nervous system and is linked to being highly emotional. Temperamental type was defined as the orthogonal intersection of extraversion and neuroticism axis (Fig. 1). In summary, sanguine is sociable Figure 1. Vector conversion of temperamental types; atrioventricular nodal reentry tachycardia (AVNRT) patients in blue and atrioventricular reentrant tachycardia (AVRT) patients in red. AVRNT angle 13.1° [95% CI 12° to 14°] vs. AVRT angle –34° [95% CI –40° to –28°]; p = 0.001; CI — confidence interval.