Cardiophile MD

Conventional implantable defibrillators have a subcutaneous device and lead which is placed within the heart, through the venous system. Bardy GH et al has evaluated an entirely subcutaneous ICD and reported the preliminary results in NEJM. Initially they compared the thresholds for various configurations in 78 patients and later the best configuration in 49 patients [...]

Right ventricular apical pacing has been found to have certain disadvantages like progressive left ventricular dysfunction leading to heart failure and associated morbidity and mortality as well as a propensity for atrial fibrillation. Hence attempts were made to simulate the natural sequence of ventricular activation by alternate site ventricular pacing. Right ventricular sites which were [...]

Mitsui et al was the first to describe pacemaker syndrome in 1969 as a symptom complex associated with right ventricular pacing [Mitsui T, Hori M, Suma K, Wanibuchi Y, Saigusa M. The “pacemaking syndrome.” In: Jacobs JE, editor. Proceedings of the Eighth Annual International Conference on Medical and Biological Engineering. Chicago, Illinois: Association for the [...]

AEDs are automatic external defibrillators which give instructions to the lay operators and can be used by the lay public for resuscitating a person in cardiac arrest. AEDs are kept in public places where large number of people arrive as in airports. Japan is a country with nation wide access to AEDs. A recent study [...]

Any CHD patient with heart failure and dyssynchrony will benefit from CRT regardless of QRS morphology. LBBB is far less common in children with heart failure than in adults. Pacing induced cardiomyopathy can be improved by either cardiac resynchronization therapy or by turning the pacemaker off.