We tested the hypothesis that left ventricular (LV) pacing is superior to right ventricular (RV) apical pacing in patients undergoing atrioventricular (AV) junction ablation and pacing for permanent atrial fibrillation. The potential benefit of LV over RV pacing needs to be evaluated without the confounding effect of other variables that can influence cardiac performance. An acute intrapatient ...

Chronic rapid ventricular pacing in the dog reportedly produces a useful preparation of low-output heart failure. However, little information is available regarding cardiac changes in this preparation. Accordingly, we evaluated the effects of both short-term (3 weeks) and prolonged (2 months) rapid ventricular pacing on cardiac hemodynamics, mass, and chamber size. The effects of short-term pac...

The appearance of noise on electrograms (EGMs) recorded from the lead of an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) may be owing to oversensing of myopotentials, insulation breach, conductor coil fracture, loose set screw, or electromagnetic interference from an external source. The extraneous noise may lead to inappropriate shocks or inhibition of pacing. We describe two cases of pectoral...

When removal of an endocardial pacemaker electrode became necessary in a patient with congestive myocardiopathy, it proved to be incarcerated. Therefore, a portion of it had to be left in site after cutting the external end of the pacing catheter. During follow-up examinations the electrode was seen to migrate in the large veins and finally was found embolized into a pulmonary artery. While the...

BACKGROUND Cardiac resynchronization therapy has been shown to improve systolic function in patients with advanced chronic heart failure and electromechanical delay (QRS width > 120 ms). However, the effect of acute biventricular (BiV) pacing on perioperative haemodynamic changes is not well defined. In the present study, acute changes in regional left ventricular (LV) systolic function determi...

In this issue of EUROPACE, Blanc et al. [1] present data from one of the five PIPAF (Pacing in Prevention of Atrial Fibrillation) studies which assess the effects of pacing on prevention of atrial tachyarrhythmias (ATs) using different atrial pacing sites (conventional sites, septal, dual site right atrial and biatrial) alone or in combination with one or more dedicated pacing algorithms [2]. T...

INTRODUCTION AND OBJECTIVES Recent studies have shown that rapid atrial pacing causes atrial electrical remodeling. However, the influence of the vagus nerve on atrial electrical remodeling is not clear. METHODS This study involved 24 dogs divided into three groups. In the control group, the inducibility of atrial fibrillation (AF) during vagal stimulation (VS(1)) was investigated. In the pac...

The objective of this study was to compare prospectively the efficacy of fixed burst pacing with that of decremental burst pacing in terminating VT. Forty-four patients with inducible sustained monomorphic VT were studied. The efficacy of fixed burst and decremental burst pacing for terminating 57 distinct types of VT were compared during 50 electrophysiology tests (mean VT cycle length = 334 +...

The cardiac pacemaker lead, the "Achilles heel" of pacing hardware, is a relatively fragile cable of insulated conductor wire implanted into the hostile environment of the human body [1]. The ideal pacing lead remains an elusive goal. Important lead characteristics include ease of surgical insertion with safe and reliable fixation in the myocardium and a high level of electrical performance [2]...