Future of bradyarrhythmia therapy systems: Automaticity

Since the first fixed-rate ventricular pacemaker was introduced in the late 1950s, pacing systems have evolved rapidly. Current developments focus on making devices more sophisticated and less complex-a challenging combinatio n. Automaticity features such as beat-by-bear capture verification, sensiti vity threshold adaptation, and algorithms to govern dynamically the maximum sensor rate have either recently been introduced or are likely to be intro duced in the near future. Technologic advances are likely to allow meaningf ul improvements in current drain, battery performance, memory capacity, sig nal processing, telemetry, and programmer interface. Bradyarrhythmia therap y devices of the future promise to go beyond the pacemaker. Ultimately, pac ing systems will become port of integrated cardiac rhythm management system s. (C) 1999 by Excerpta Medica, Inc.