The effect of atrial pacing on the risk of atrial tachyarrhythmias in patients with dual-chamber cardiac pacemakers: a pilot study

Aim. To evaluate the effect of atrial pacing (AP) on the development of atrial extrasystoles and episodes of supraventricular tachycardia in patients with dual-chamber cardiac pacemakers. Methods. The study included 97 patients who underwent implantation of dual-chamber cardiac pacemakers. The analysis of 169 control examinations in the period from 1 to 20 months after surgery was carried out. The parameters of atrial stimulation, group atrial extrasystoles, and episodes of supraventricular tachycardia were evaluated. The initial data was processed in Microsoft Excel and Access, statistical analysis was performed in Jupyter Notebook (Python 3.x). Results. A moderate positive correlation was established between atrial extrasystoles and episodes of supraventricular tachycardia (p=0.623, p <0.001). In the AP group ≥ 91%, there was a decrease in the frequency of AT/AF >24 hours (p = 0.060). Logistic regression showed a significant reduction in the risk of AT/AF >24 hours with AP 51 - 90% (odds ratio 0.31, p=0.002). Conclusion. High level of atrial stimulation may reduce the risk of prolonged episodes of supraventricular tachycardia, however, the effect of atrial stimulation of cardiac pacemaker on episodes of atrial extrasystoles has not reached statistical significance.