13th International Congress
THE "NEW FRONTIERS"
OF ARRHYTHMIAS 1998

January 24-31, 1998
Marilleva, Trento, Italy

RT-58

Efficacy of atrial pacing in the prevention of atrial fibrillation: role of intra-atrial conduction?

Giuseppe Stabile, Antonio De Simone, Pietro Turco, Fabio Capasso, Ferdinando Petrazzuoli, Carmine De Matteis*, Pasquale Golino°, Raffaele Rotunno#, Tommaso Di Napoli#.
Laboratorio di Elettrofisiologia, Casa di Cura San Michele, Maddaloni (CE),
*Divisione di Cardiologia, Ospedale Civile, San Felice a Cancello (CE),
°Divisione di Cardiologia, Ospedale Civile, Caserta, #Reparto di Cardiologia, Polla (SA), Italy

Introduction

Atrial fibrillation is the most common sustained arrhythmia, affecting 0.4% of the general population and over 10% of the elderly¹. Medical control has generally been difficult and arrhythmia recurrence is common². Prevention of atrial fibrillation by nonpharmacologic methods is now being widely investigated. Recently, several studies have shown that single- or dual-site atrial pacing is effective in reducing the frequency of recurrent atrial fibrillation in some patients groups with bradycardia-dependent atrial fibrillation or severe interatrial conduction disturbances^3-5. It has not been clarified if atrial pacing therapy is effective in preventing atrial fibrillation recurrences in non selected patients and which would be the better clinical predictors of long-term efficacy of atrial pacing. Aim of our study was to retrospectively analyze the electrophysiological parameters which would predict long-term success of atrial pacing in reducing or preventing atrial fibrillation recurrences in patients with atrial fibrillation coexisting with sick sinus syndrome or atrioventricular block.