Are plasma natriuretic peptide levels influenced by automatic pacemaker algorithms for ventricular pacing minimization?

Background: Automatic atrioventricular search hysteresis (AVSH) is designed to reduce the cumulative percentage of potentially deleterious right ventricular apical pacing (VP%) in dual-chamber pacemakers. We investigated whether minimizing VP% by AVSH can, in turn, reduce ventricular wall stretching/stress, as assessed by plasma concentrations of the amino-terminal fragment of the pro-B-type natriuretic peptide (NT-proBNP).

Methods: After dual-chamber pacemaker implantation in 81 patients (age: 69 ± 11 years; males: 55.