Atrial pacing has been shown to delay the onset of atrial fibrillation (AF)
when compared with ventricular pacing in patients with sick sinus syndrome
. The role for pacing in the control of AF in patients without bradycardia
is uncertain. We performed a randomized, crossover, single-blinded study in
22 patients (14 women, aged 63 +/- 10 years) with paroxysmal AF refractory
to treatment with oral sotalol (202 +/- 68 mg/day) and no bradycardic indi
cation for pacing. All patients received a dual-chamber pacemaker with 2 at
rial pacing leads positioned at the high right atrium and coronary sinus os
tium, respectively. Patients were randomized in a crossover fashion to be p
aced for 12 weeks, either with high right atrial (RA) pacing at 30 beats/mi
n ("Off") or dual-site RA pacing with an overdrive algorithm that maintaine
d atrial pacing at a rate slightly above the sinus rate ("On"). Treatment o
n resulted in a significantly higher percentage of atrial pacing and a redu
ction in atrial ectopic frequency than the treatment off period. The time t
o the first clinical AF recurrence was prolonged (15 +/- 17 to 50 +/- 35 da
ys, p = 0.006), and total AF burden was reduced (45 +/- 34% vs 22 +/- 29%,
p = 0.04) in the on-treatment phase. However, there was no difference in AF
checklist symptom scores or overall quality-of-life measures. Dual-site RA
pacing with continued sinus overdrive prolonged the time to AF recurrence
and decreased AF burden in patients with paroxysmal AF. The absence of a ma
jor impact on symptom control suggests that pacing should be used as an adj
unctive therapy with other treatment modalities for AF. (C) 2001 by Excerpt
a Medica, Inc.