The role of atrial sensing for new‐onset atrial arrhythmias diagnosis and management in single‐chamber implantable cardioverter‐defibrillator recipients: Results from the THINGS registry

Key influences of VDD (DX) ICD selection: Results from a prospective, national survey

BACKGROUND

To preserve the benefit of atrial sensing without the implantation of an additional lead, a single-lead ICD system with a floating atrial dipole (DX ICD) has been developed. The purpose of this nationwide survey was to provide an overview of the current key influences of device selection focusing on DX ICD and to test the applicability of a previously published decision-making flowchart of ICD-type selection.

METHODS

An online questionnaire was sent to all implanting centers in Hungary. Eleven centers reported data from 361 DX ICD and 10 CRT-DX systems implantations between February 2021 and May 2023.

RESULTS

The most important influencing clinical factors indicated by the participating doctors were elevated risk of atrial fibrillation (AF)/stroke (56%), risk of sinus/supraventricular tachycardias (SVT) (42%), and a potential need for CRT upgrade in the future (36%). The DX ICD was considered in the majority of cases instead of the VVI system (87%), and only in a small proportion instead of a DDD ICD (13%). 60% of the patients with DX ICDs were also included into remote monitoring-based follow-up. In 83% of the cases, good (>2 mV) or excellent (>5) atrial signal amplitude was recorded within 6 weeks after the implantation.

CONCLUSION

In the current national survey, the most important influencing factors indicated by the implanters for selecting a DX ICD were the elevated risk of stroke or sinus/SVT and a potential need for CRT upgrade in the future. These findings support the use of a previously published decision-making flowchart.

Autonomic neuronal modulations in cardiac arrhythmias: Current concepts and emerging therapies

The pathophysiology of atrial fibrillation and ventricular tachycardia that result in cardiac arrhythmias is related to the sustained complicated mechanisms of the autonomic nervous system. Atrial fibrillation is when the heart beats irregularly, and ventricular arrhythmias are rapid and inconsistent heart rhythms, which involves many factors including the autonomic nervous system. It's a complex topic that requires careful exploration. Cultivation of speculative knowledge on atrial fibrillation; the irregular rhythm of the heart and ventricular arrhythmias; rapid oscillating waves resulting from mistakenly inconsistent P waves, and the inclusion of an autonomic nervous system is an inconceivable approach toward clinical intricacies. Autonomic modulation, therefore, acquires new expansions and conceptions of appealing therapeutic intelligence to prevent cardiac arrhythmia. Notably, autonomic modulation uses the neural tissue's flexibility to cause remodeling and, hence, provide therapeutic effects. In addition, autonomic modulation techniques included stimulation of the vagus nerve and tragus, renal denervation, cardiac sympathetic denervation, and baroreceptor activation treatment. Strong preclinical evidence and early human studies support the annihilation of cardiac arrhythmias by sympathetic and parasympathetic systems to transmigrate the cardiac myocytes and myocardium as efficient determinants at the cellular and physiological levels. However, the goal of this study is to draw attention to these promising early pre-clinical and clinical arrhythmia treatment options that use autonomic modulation as a therapeutic modality to conquer the troublesome process of irregular heart movements. Additionally, we provide a summary of the numerous techniques for measuring autonomic tone such as heart rate oscillations and its association with cutaneous sympathetic nerve activity appear to be substitute indicators and predictors of the outcome of treatment.

Association between nighttime heart rate and cardiovascular mortality in patients with implantable cardioverter-defibrillator: A cohort study

BACKGROUND

Although studies have shown that an increased resting heart rate measured randomly at a single point of the day has been associated with adverse cardiovascular outcomes, the utility of continuous monitoring of nighttime heart rate (NTHR) has remained largely uninvestigated.

OBJECTIVE

This study aimed to explore the association between NTHR and cardiovascular mortality.

METHODS

The Study of Home Monitoring System Safety and Efficacy in Cardiac Implantable Electronic Device-implanted Patients, which is a prospective cohort study, enrolled patients with implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) or cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillator between 2010 and 2015. Baseline NTHR was measured during the programmed sleep period from 30 to 60 days after implantation. The primary outcome was cardiovascular mortality, fitted by a restricted cubic spline function.

RESULTS

A total of 534 implantable cardioverter-defibrillator recipients with sinus rhythm during the detection window were included in the study. The mean baseline NTHR was 59.6 ± 8.0 beats/min. During the follow-up period of 60.4 ± 21.8 months, 88 (16.5%) patients experienced cardiovascular mortality. After considering potential confounders, a linear association was observed. Each 1 beat/min increase in NTHR was associated with a 7.8%, 10.1%, and 5.7% increase in the risk of cardiovascular mortality in the total population, patients with heart failure, and patients without heart failure, respectively.

CONCLUSION

Continuous monitoring of NTHR may identify patients at high risk of cardiovascular mortality in a timely manner, with the potential for "preemptive" action.

TRIAL REGISTRATION

No. ChiCTR-ONRC-13003695.

Ability to remotely monitor atrial high-rate episodes using a single-chamber implantable cardioverter-defibrillator with a floating atrial sensing dipole

AIMS

To allow timely initiation of anticoagulation therapy for the prevention of stroke, the European guidelines on atrial fibrillation (AF) recommend remote monitoring (RM) of device-detected atrial high-rate episodes (AHREs) and progression of arrhythmia duration along pre-specified strata (6 min…<1 h, 1 h…<24 h, ≥ 24 h). We used the MATRIX registry data to assess the capability of a single-lead implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) with atrial sensing dipole (DX ICD system) to follow this recommendation in patients with standard indication for single-chamber ICD.

METHODS AND RESULTS

In 1841 DX ICD patients with daily automatic RM transmissions, electrograms of first device-detected AHREs per patient in each duration stratum were adjudicated, and the corresponding positive predictive values (PPVs) for the detections to be true atrial arrhythmia were calculated. Moreover, the incidence and progression of new-onset AF was assessed in 1451 patients with no AF history. A total of 610 AHREs ≥6 min were adjudicated. The PPV was 95.1% (271 of 285) for episodes 6min…<1 h, 99.6% (253/254) for episodes 1 h…<24 h, 100% (71/71) for episodes ≥24 h, or 97.5% for all episodes (595/610). The incidence of new-onset AF was 8.2% (119/1451), and in 31.1% of them (37/119), new-onset AF progressed to a higher duration stratum. Nearly 80% of new-onset AF patients had high CHA2DS2-VASc stroke risk, and 70% were not on anticoagulation therapy. Age was the only significant predictor of new-onset AF.

CONCLUSION

A 99.7% detection accuracy for AHRE ≥1 h in patients with DX ICD systems in combination with daily RM allows a reliable guideline-recommended screening for subclinical AF and monitoring of AF-duration progression.

REACT DX registry: Real world REACTion to atrial high rate episodes detected in implantable cardioverter-defibrillator recipients with a DX lead

BACKGROUND

Atrial fibrillation (AF) is associated with significant morbidity and is predicted by atrial high rate events. The early detection of AF is paramount to timely interventions to reduce the morbidity of AF. The DX ICD system combined with Home Monitoring® allows for continuous atrial rhythm monitoring without the need for a dedicated atrial lead.

OBJECTIVE

To establish the reaction to and timing of reactions to the detection of atrial high rate episodes (AHRE).

METHODS

A prospective cohort of DX ICD systems was followed up and the response to AHREs was collected and evaluated.

RESULTS

A total of 234 patients were enrolled; an AHRE ⩾ 6 min was detected in 13.7% of patients (n= 32) within a mean follow-up duration of 16 months. A high rate of oral anticoagulation (OAC) prescription was seen with the detection of AHREs in patients with a not-low risk CHA2DS2-VASc score. There was a delay in this prescription highlighting the potential to improve the timeliness of patient care in this group of patients.

CONCLUSIONS

The DX ICD system provides rapid and ongoing atrial rhythm monitoring such that physicians are rapidly aware of AHRE without the need for a dedicated atrial lead, but local protocols are needed to improve the response time of anti-coagulation prescription.

The efficacy of single-lead implantable cardioverter-defibrillator with atrial sensing dipole to detect atrial fibrillation and to reduce inappropriate therapy according to atrial sensing ON or OFF: Rationale and design of the SMART-CONTROL study, a prospective multicenter randomized trial

BACKGROUND

Few studies have compared the efficacy of single-lead implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) with atrial sensing dipole (VDD-ICD) and conventional single-chamber ICD from the aspect of atrial fibrillation (AF) detection or inappropriate ICD therapy reduction. In the SMART-CONTROL trial (NCT03932604), we primarily aim to investigate whether the atrial sensing capability of VDD-ICD is useful in AF detection and inappropriate therapy reduction by randomly activating or deactivating the atrial sensing function.

METHODS AND DESIGN

This study was designed as a prospective, multicenter, open-label, randomized trial to enroll 640 patients with no history of clinical AF or rhythm control for AF within 1 year who were undergoing the implantation of VDD-ICD system. Patients are assigned randomly to atrial sensing "ON" or "OFF" group, with crossover allowed during follow-up. The coprimary outcomes are the incidence of AF detection and inappropriate ICD therapy over a 2-year follow-up period. The secondary outcomes include non-AF atrial tachyarrhythmia, ventricular tachyarrhythmia with or without ICD therapy, thromboembolic events, bleeding, heart failure hospitalization, mortality, a composite of adverse cardiovascular events, and long-term atrial sensing stability or variability.

CONCLUSION

We expect that this trial can evaluate the efficacy of a single-lead ICD system on various clinical outcomes including AF detection and inappropriate therapy reduction, and ultimately provide guidance to selection of ICD system.

Atrial fibrillation associated with heart failure treated by a 2-lead CRT-DX system (BIO-AffectDX): Study design and clinical protocol

Background

Evidence to support use of cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) among patients with both heart failure (HF) and atrial fibrillation (AF) is largely limited to retrospective or post hoc subanalyses. Data from a prospectively enrolled and contemporary cohort are needed.

Objective

We aim to better characterize the changes from baseline in HF patients with concomitant AF subsequently implanted with a 2-lead CRT-DX system capable of sensing in the atrium, aggregating diagnostics, and delivering CRT therapy. The primary objective of this study is to evaluate the percentage of all HF subjects with an improvement in a clinical composite score from pre-CRT implant to 12 months.

Methods

The study is a US-based, prospective, observational multicenter clinical trial conducted at up to 50 sites and enrolling approximately 400 subjects with a follow-up period of 1 year. Multiple subject assessments, atrial rhythm status, and device interrogation will be collected at follow-up visits occurring at 3, 6, and 12 months postimplant.

Results

A Clinical Events Committee will adjudicate subject HF events, arrhythmia events, death events, and all device-classified ventricular tachycardia and ventricular fibrillation episodes with treatment that are collected throughout the follow-up period. Their decisions are based on independent physician review of the data from sites and device interrogation.

Conclusion

The BIO-AffectDX study aims to provide further insight into the expected outcomes from CRT treatment in patients with HF and AF.

Cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillators in patients with permanent atrial fibrillation

Aims

There are conflicting data on the benefit of cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) in heart failure (HF) patients with permanent atrial fibrillation (AF). We aimed to compare patient outcomes according to the presence or absence of permanent AF at device implantation.

Methods and results

We retrospectively analysed remote monitoring data from 1141 CRT defibrillators. Propensity score with inverse‐probability weighting method was used to balance AF and sinus rhythm (SR) groups. Analysis endpoints included total mortality, appropriate defibrillation shocks, and CRT percentage. There were 229 patients (20.1%) in the AF group and 912 patients (79.9%) in the SR group. Compared with SR patients, AF patients were older (median age, 77 vs. 72 years, P < 0.001), more frequently male (82.5% vs. 75.5%, P = 0.02), and had higher heart rate (75.7 vs. 71.0 b.p.m., P < 0.001). Of the 229 AF patients, 162 (70.7%) received suboptimal CRT (<98%) and 67 (29.3%) had adequate CRT (≥98%). During a median follow‐up of 24 months, total mortality did not differ between AF and SR groups (propensity‐score‐weighted hazard ratio, HR 1.32 [95% confidence interval, 0.82–2.15], P = 0.25). The risk of appropriate shocks was significantly higher in the AF group with <98% CRT than in the SR group (weighted‐HR, 1.99 [1.21–3.26], P = 0.006) and was similar in the AF group with ≥98% CRT versus the SR group (1.29 [0.66–2.53], P = 0.45). During follow‐up, sinus rhythm was recovered in 23 patients in the AF group (10%) after a median time of 106 (42–256) days. The rate of sinus rhythm recovery in the AF group was 4.5 (95% CI, 2.8–6.7) per 100 patient‐years; the rate of permanent AF occurrence in the SR group was 2.5 (95% CI, 1.9–3.3) per 100 patient‐years.

Conclusions

Although mortality was similar across patient groups, patients with permanent AF and suboptimal CRT had twofold higher risk of appropriate shocks than SR patients or AF patients with CRT ≥ 98%.

Long-term evaluation of sensing variability of a floating atrial dipole in a single‑lead defibrillator: The mechanistic basis of long-term stability of amplified atrial electrogram

BACKGROUND

A single‑lead implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) with a floating atrial dipole has been developed to enhance the diagnostic capability of atrial arrhythmias and to facilitate adjudication of arrhythmic events without the additional effort required for atrial lead insertion. However, there have been concerns about the long-term reliability of atrial sensing.

METHODS

We enrolled patients with the single-chamber ICD with atrial-sensing electrodes from 4 tertiary university hospitals in Korea. Minimal, maximal, and mean P wave amplitudes were collected at 3-6 months, 6-12 months, and 12-24 months after implantation. The difference between the minimal and maximal sensing amplitudes was calculated as an indicator of the variability of atrial sensing, while the atrial sensing stability was assessed using the mean amplitude.

RESULTS

A total of 86 patients were included for analysis. The variability of atrial sensing amplitudes significantly decreased at 12-24 months compared to 3-6 months (p = 0.01), while mean atrial amplitudes were stable throughout the mean follow-up duration of 17.4 months. Nine patients (10.5%) experienced inappropriate ICD therapy mostly due to misclassification of supraventricular tachycardia.

CONCLUSIONS

Under the hypothesis that sensing stability can be guaranteed as the variability decreases with time, we suggest that the concern about long-term sensing stability of a floating dipole can be abated with an ICD that has been implanted for over 2 years.

Rationale and feasibility of the atrioventricular single-lead ICD systems with a floating atrial dipole (DX) in clinical practice

Cardiac implantable electronic devices establish proper therapy for the prevention of sudden cardiac death, significantly reducing the morbidity and mortality of patients with arrhythmias and heart failure. It is well-known that the number of electrodes increases the risk of complications. To preserve the benefit of atrial sensing without the need to implant an additional lead, a single-lead ICD system with a floating atrial dipole (DX ICD lead) has been developed. Besides all of the potential benefits, the necessity of a reliable and stable atrial sensing via the floating dipole could be the main concern against the use of this lead type. In the current generation of DX devices, the specially filtered atrial signal seems to be high enough and stable over time, which is crucial in the early detection of atrial arrhythmias, discrimination between different forms of tachycardias in order to prevent inappropriate ICD therapy, and achieving an optimal atrioventricular and interventricular synchrony in patients with a two-lead CRT-DX system. The present review summarizes the benefits and potential drawbacks of the DX ICD systems based on the available literature, furthermore, proposes an evidence-based algorithm of ICD type selection.

Real-world performance of the atrial fibrillation monitor in patients with a subcutaneous ICD

Introduction

The third‐generation subcutaneous implantable cardioverter‐defibrillator (S‐ICD) (EMBLEM™ A219, Boston Scientific) contains a new diagnostic tool to detect atrial fibrillation (AF) in S‐ICD patients, without the use of an intracardiac lead. This is the first study to evaluate the performance of the S‐ICD AF monitor (AFM).

Methods

The AFM algorithm analyzes a subcutaneous signal for the presence of AF, similar to the signals collected by implantable and wearable diagnostic devices. The AFM algorithm combines heart rate (HR) scatter analysis with an HR histogram. The algorithm was tested against publicly available electrocardiogram databases (simulated performance). Real‐world performance of the algorithm was evaluated by using the S‐ICD LATITUDE remote monitoring (RM) database.

Results

The simulated performance of the AFM algorithm resulted in a sensitivity of 95.0%, specificity of 100.0%, and positive predictive value (PPV) of 100.0%. To evaluate the real‐world performance of the AFM, 7744 S‐ICD devices were followed for up to 30 months by RM, whereof 99.5% had the AFM enabled. A total of 387 AF episodes were randomly chosen for adjudication, resulting in a PPV of 67.7%. The main cause of misclassification was atrial and ventricular ectopy.

Conclusion

The AFM exhibited a very high sensitivity and specificity in a simulated setting, designed to maximize PPV in order to minimize the clinical burden of reviewing falsely detected AF events. The real‐world performance of the AFM, enabled in 99.5% of S‐ICD patients, is a PPV of 67.7%.

Novel two-lead cardiac resynchronization therapy system provides equivalent CRT responses with less complications than a conventional three-lead system: Results from the QP ExCELs lead registry

Introduction

The novel two‐lead cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT)‐DX system utilizes a floating atrial dipole on the implantable cardioverter‐defibrillator lead, and when implanted with a left ventricular (LV) lead, offers a two‐lead CRT system with AV synchrony. This study compared complication rates and CRT response among subjects implanted with a two‐lead CRT‐DX system to those subjects implanted with a standard three‐lead CRT‐D system.

Methods and Results

A total of 240 subjects from the Sentus QP—Extended CRT Evaluation with Quadripolar Left Ventricular Leads postapproval study were selected to identify 120 matched pairs based on similar demographic characteristics using a Greedy algorithm. The complication‐free rate was evaluated as the primary endpoint. All‐cause mortality, heart failure hospitalizations, device diagnostic data, New York Heart Association (NYHA) class improvement, and defibrillator therapy were evaluated from clinical data, in‐office interrogations, and remote monitoring throughout the follow‐up period. Complication‐free survival favored the CRT‐DX group with 92.5% without a major complication compared to 85.0% in the CRT‐D cohort (P = .0495; 95% confidence interval: 0.1%‐14.9%) over a mean follow‐up of 1.3 and 1.4 years, respectively. Incidence of all‐cause mortality, heart failure hospitalizations, NYHA changes at 6 months postimplant, and percent of LV pacing during CRT therapy were similar in both device cohorts. Inappropriate shocks were more frequent in the CRT‐D cohort with 5.8% of subjects receiving an inappropriate shock vs 0.8% in the CRT‐DX cohort.

Conclusion

The results of this subanalysis demonstrate that the CRT‐DX system can provide similar CRT responses and significantly fewer complications when compared to a similar cohort with a conventional three‐lead CRT‐D system.