Clinical Significance of Nonsustained Ventricular Tachycardia on Stored Electrograms in Permanent Pacemaker Patients.
BACKGROUND
Permanent pacemaker electrograms record a variety of arrhythmias, including nonsustained ventricular tachycardia (NSVT). Little has been reported regarding incidence and clinical significance of NSVT in pacemaker patients after long-term monitoring.


METHODS
Records from all patients implanted with Medtronic pacemakers (Medtronic, Minneapolis, MN, USA) at a single institution from January 1, 2009 to February 27, 2012 were reviewed. Demographic characteristics, imaging studies, pacemaker interrogations, and the Social Security Death Index were examined in patients older than 18 years of age who had ≥ 2 follow-up device interrogations.


RESULTS
A total of 262 patients with an ejection fraction (EF) >40% were included in the final analysis with a mean follow-up of 29.2 months. Of these patients, 83.2% (n = 218) had hypertension (HTN) and 45.4% (n = 119) had NSVT. Among patients with an EF ≥ 55%, hypertensive patients had a NSVT burden 2.46 times greater than normotensive patients (incidence rate ratio: 2.46, 95% confidence interval: 1.10-5.50; P < 0.028). NSVT was not associated with increased mortality (P < 0.1229).


CONCLUSIONS
In this cohort of patients, there was a high prevalence of HTN and while hypertensive subjects had a significantly higher NSVT burden, NSVT was not associated with an increased mortality.
Department of Cardiology, Long Island Jewish Hospital, New Hyde Park, New York.
James
J
Gabriels
Department of Cardiology, Long Island Jewish Hospital, New Hyde Park, New York.
Michael
M
Wu
Department of Cardiology, Long Island Jewish Hospital, New Hyde Park, New York.
Lisa
L
Rosen
Department of Cardiology, Long Island Jewish Hospital, New Hyde Park, New York.
Apoor
A
Patel
Department of Cardiology, Long Island Jewish Hospital, New Hyde Park, New York.
Bruce
B
Goldner
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D022062:Electrophysiologic Techniques, Cardiac / Q000295:instrumentation* / Q000379:methods; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008137:Longitudinal Studies; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009518:New York / Q000453:epidemiology; D010138:Pacemaker, Artificial / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D019736:Prostheses and Implants / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D012307:Risk Factors; D015996:Survival Rate; D017180:Tachycardia, Ventricular / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D055815:Young Adult
hypertension; nonsustained ventricular tachycardia; permanent pacemaker