Usefulness of atrial pacing for prevention and termination of atrial tachyarrhythmias in a patient with persistent atrial fibrillation

Atrial pacing with dedicated algorithms for prevention and termination of atrial tachyarrhythmias is under clinical evaluation. A patient is described with persistent symptomatic AF. After cardioversion and implantation of a DDDRP pacemaker before planned AVN ablation, the patient was free of symptoms. Early after implant, one cardioversion of AF was necessary. Over the course of 12 months, only five episodes of atrial tachyarrhythmia occurred, all automatically pace terminated within 24 hours. Thus, selected patients with persistent AF may benefit from preventive atrial pacing since the tachyarrhythmia can organize intermittently to a degree sufficient for pace termination.