Efficacy of Intentional Permanent Atrial Pacing in the Long-Term
Management of Congenital Long QT Syndrome
Abstract
Background: Some long QT syndrome (LQTS) patients experience
breakthrough cardiac events (BCEs) despite maximal therapy. Small
studies have shown that intentional permanent atrial pacing (IPAP) is
beneficial in refractory LQTS. As such, we sought to determine the
genotype-specific utilization and efficacy of IPAP in a single-center
LQTS registry. Methods and Results: In this retrospective study,
electronic medical records from 1,065 LQTS patients were used to
identify individuals that received IPAP. Pre- and post-IPAP heart rate,
heart rate-corrected QT (QTc) values, annual BCE rate, and IPAP-related
complications were compared between genotypes. BCEs were defined as
LQTS-associated syncope/seizures, ventricular arrhythmia
(VA)-terminating ICD therapies, and sudden cardiac arrest/death.
Overall, 52/1065 LQTS patients received adjunctive IPAP therapy [77%
female; median age 18.5 (IQR 1-35.5) years; 73% with prior VA]. Over
an average IPAP follow-up of 121 82 months, the average heart rate
increased from 65.8 20.4 bpm to 78.9 17.1 bpm; (p<0.01)
and the average QTc decreased from 533.4 66.6 ms to 488.3 52.4 ms;
(p<0.01). The mean BCE rate dropped from 0.88 to 0.19 per
patient-year (p=0.01), driven by a marked decrease in LQT2 patients
(1.01 BCE/year to 0.02 BCE/year; p=0.003). No serious IPAP-related
complications were observed. Conclusion: In high-risk LQTS patients,
namely those with recalcitrant LQT2, IPAP appears to be a safe and
efficacious adjunct therapy. The beneficial effects of IPAP may stem
from attenuating the QTc and circumventing a pause-dependent trigger.
Whether IPAP might obviate the need for an ICD in some instances
warrants further study.