Search results for " atrial"

Role of Rate Control and Regularization Through Pacing in Patients With Chronic Atrial Fibrillation and Preserved Ventricular Function: The VRR Study

2006

Aim: High heart rates in chronic atrial fibrillation (CAF) is one of the factors responsible for hemodynamic alterations and may lead to tachycardiomyopathies. The ventricular rate regulation (VRR) study evaluates the effect of ventricular rate regularization in CAF patients with preserved ventricular function, marked ventricular rate variability, and indications for pacemaker (PM) implantation owing to symptomatic pauses. Rate regularization was achieved using VRR algorithm (INSIGNIA® pacemakers, Guidant Corp., St. Paul, MN, USA). Methods: One month after PM implantation, 58 patients followed two 3-month crossover periods (VRR-OFF; VRR-ON) in which the VRR algorithm was randomized and comp…

Clinical predictors to identify paroxysmal atrial fibrillation after ischaemic stroke.

2013

Background and purpose Detection of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (pAF) after an ischaemic cerebrovascular event is of imminent interest, because oral anticoagulation as a highly effective secondary preventive treatment is available. Whereas permanent atrial fibrillation (AF) can be detected during routine electrocardiogram (ECG), longer detection duration will detect more pAF but might be resource consuming. The current study tried to identify clinical predictors for pAF detected during long-term Holter ECG and clinical follow-up. Methods Patients with acute ischaemic stroke were prospectively investigated with an intensified algorithm to detect pAF (7-day Holter ECG, follow-up investigat…

Paroxysmal atrial fibrillation and high degree AV block: use of single-lead VDDR pacing with mode switching.

1998

Dual chamber rate responsive pacing incorporating a mode switching option is increasingly used in patients with chronic paroxysmal atrial fibrillation and high degree AV block. Single-lead VDDR pacemakers have rarely used for this indication. The purpose of this study was to determine their reliability of atrial sensing during atrial fibrillation, the percentage of atrial synchronous ventricular pacing, and the behavior of the sinus rate outside the phases of atrial fibrillation. We studied ten patients with a single-lead VDDR pacemaker implanted for this indication. Follow-up visits were performed at predischarge and after 1, 3, 6, 12, 18, and 24 months. During the mean follow-up period of…

Automatic detection of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation in patients with ischaemic stroke: better than routine diagnostic workup?

2016

Background and purpose Prolonged electrocardiogram (ECG) monitoring after ischaemic stroke increases the diagnostic yield of paroxysmal atrial fibrillation (pAF). In order to facilitate the additional workload involved in ECG analysis due to prolonged monitoring times, we investigated the effectiveness of pAF detection with an automated software algorithm (SA) in comparison to the routine staff-based analysis (RA) during standard stroke-unit care. Therefore, patients with acute ischaemic stroke or transitory ischaemic attack presenting with sinus rhythmus on the admission ECG and no history of atrial fibrillation were prospectively included. Methods A 24-h Holter ECG assessment was performe…

Helicobacter pylori and atrial fibrillation: absence of correlations

2009

Factors affecting adherence to guidelines for antithrombotic therapy in elderly patients with atrial fibrillation admitted to internal medicine wards

2010

Abstract Introduction Current guidelines for ischemic stroke prevention in atrial fibrillation or flutter (AFF) recommend Vitamin K antagonists (VKAs) for patients at high-intermediate risk and aspirin for those at intermediate-low risk. The cost-effectiveness of these treatments was demonstrated also in elderly patients. However, there are several reports that emphasize the underuse of pharmacological prophylaxis of cardio-embolism in patients with AFF in different health care settings. Aims To evaluate the adherence to current guidelines on cardio-embolic prophylaxis in elderly (> 65 years old) patients admitted with an established diagnosis of AFF to the Italian internal medicine wards p…

Impact of Midregional N‐Terminal Pro–Atrial Natriuretic Peptide and Soluble Suppression of Tumorigenicity 2 Levels on Heart Rhythm in Patients Treate…

2021

Background We assessed the impact of preprocedural plasma levels of MRproANP (midregional N‐terminal pro–atrial natriuretic peptide) and sST2 (soluble suppression of tumorigenicity 2) on recurrence of atrial fibrillation (AF) at 1 year after catheter ablation of AF. Methods and Results This was a prospective, multicenter, observational study including patients undergoing catheter ablation of AF. MRproANP and sST2 were measured in a peripheral venous blood preprocedure, and MRproANP was assessed in the right and left atrial blood during ablation. The primary end point was recurrent AF between 3 and 12 months postablation, defined as a documented (>30 seconds) episode of AF, flutter, or a…

Correlation between atrial fibrillation driver locations and complex fractionated atrial electrograms in patients with persistent atrial fibrillation.

2018

Introduction The aim of this study was to evaluate a spatial correlation between active atrial fibrillation (AF) drivers measured by electrocardiographic imaging and complex fractionated atrial electrograms (CFAEs) in patients with persistent AF. Methods Sixteen patients with persistent AF were included. A biatrial geometry relative to an array of 252-body-surface-electrodes was obtained from a noncontrast computed tomography scan. The reconstructed unipolar AF electrograms were signal-processed (ECVUE™, CardioInsight Technologies Inc., Cleveland, OH, USA) to identify AF drivers. Before driver ablation, a biatrial mapping using the NavX system (St. Jude Medical, St. Paul, MN, USA) was perfo…

Cholesterol-adjusted vitamin E serum levels are associated with cardiovascular events in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation.

2013

Non-valvular atrial fibrillation is associated with an increase in thromboembolism, i.e. stroke, and atherosclerotic events, i.e. myocardial infarction. Vitamin E possesses anti-coagulant as well as anti-atherosclerotic properties. Our aim was to assess whether vitamin E is associated with cardiovascular events in patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation.Serum levels of cholesterol-adjusted vitamin E were measured in 1012 patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation. Patients were followed for a mean time of 27.0 months, and cardiovascular events, such as cardiovascular death and fatal and nonfatal stroke or myocardial infarction, were recorded.During the follow-up period, cardiovas…

CATHAR : CATHeter for ARRhythmias : determination of depth of burned biological tissues with microwave

2015

Cardiac arrhythmia substrates may be treated by intracardiac ablations which consist in burning specific atrial or ventricular endocardial substrates. Created lesions which are not transmural may be responsible for arrhythmia recurrences. To date, the depth of the lesion inside the endocardium can't be assessed accurately during the procedures. Our experimental work has focused on microwave characterization of biological tissues (in vitro) to assess the burn depth. Using a reflection technique with a coaxial probe in contact with tissues, measurements were made over a wide frequency range (100 MHz to 6 GHz). The measured reflection coefficient is known to be directly related to the dielectr…