AF pacing in sick sinus syndrome

Abstract

“In patients with sick sinus syndrome (SSS), the occurrence of atrial fibrillation (AF) after pacemaker implantation is very common and associated with increased risk of stroke, systemic embolism, heart failure, and mortality,” says Hung-Fat Tse from the Queen Mary Hospital in Hong Kong. A study undertaken by Tse and colleagues, and published in Circulation, has shown that neither the use of an alternative atrial pacing site in the right atrial septum, nor continuous atrial overdrive pacing, prevents the development of persistent AF in patients with SSS.