Does single-chamber atrial pacing compared to ventricular pacing reduce the incidence of congestive heart failure in patients with sick sinus syndrome?
In patients with sick sinus syndrome, ventricular pacing leads to worse clinical and echocardiographic heart failure outcomes compared to atrial pacing.
During long-term follow-up, ventricular pacing is associated with a higher incidence of congestive heart failure and consumption of diuretics than atrial pacing. This is accompanied by a decrease in left ventricular fractional shortening and an increased dilatation of the left atrium in the ventricular paced patients.
Nielsen et al. (Tue,) studied this question.