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Incidence and Rate Characteristics of Atrial Tachyarrhythmias in Patients with a Dual Chamber Defibrillator
Author(s) -
WOLPERT CHRISTIAN,
JUNG WERNER,
SPEHL SUSANNE,
SCHIMPF RAINER,
OMRAN HEYDER,
SCHUMACHER BURGHARD,
ESMAILZADEH BAHMAN,
TENZER DIRK,
MEHRA RAHUL,
LÜDERITZ BERNDT
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
pacing and clinical electrophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.686
H-Index - 101
eISSN - 1540-8159
pISSN - 0147-8389
DOI - 10.1046/j.1460-9592.2003.t01-1-00254.x
Subject(s) - medicine , cardiology , atrial fibrillation , atrial tachycardia , incidence (geometry) , catheter ablation , physics , optics
Atrial tachyarrhythmias play an important role in the treatment of patients with malignant ventricular tachyarrhythmias not only with respect to inappropriate discharges but also to left ventricular function and stroke risk. A combined dual chamber defibrillator provides separate therapies for atrial and ventricular tachyarrhythmias. To assess the incidence of atrial tachyarrhythmias in patients with this dual chamber implantable defibrillator, 40 patients with ventricular tachyarrhythmias and concomitant atrial tachyarrhythmias and/or AV conduction disturbances were included in a prospective study. During a mean follow‐up of25 ± 11 months, 26 of 40 patients had a total of 1,430 recurrences of atrial tachyarrhythmias. The vast majority of the atrial tachyarrhythmias with regular atrial cycles had a mean median atrial cycle length of235 ± 37 msand a mean duration of34 ± 144 minutes. Atrial tachyarrhythmias with irregular atrial cycles exhibited a median atrial cycle length of198 ± 31 msand had a mean duration of246 ± 1,264 minutes. In addition, 67% of 375 tachyarrhythmias, in which the median ventricular cycle length during the ongoing episode could be documented, had a ventricular rate <100 beats/min. Continuous atrial arrhythmia detection with a dual chamber ICD reveals a high incidence of atrial tachyarrhythmias with a predominantly short duration of paroxysmal recurrences <1 hour in the vast majority of episodes. (PACE 2003; 26:1691–1698)