Large Controlled Observational Study on Remote Monitoring of Pacemakers and Implantable Cardiac Defibrillators: A Clinical, Economic, and Organizational Evaluation.

Background: Patients with implantable devices such as pacemakers (PMs) and implantable cardiac defibrillators (ICDs) should be followed up every 3-12 months, which traditionally required in-clinic visits. Innovative devices allow data transmission and technical or medical alerts to be sent from the patient's home to the physician (remote monitoring). A number of studies have shown its effectiveness in timely detection and management of both clinical and technical events, and endorsed its adoption.

Long-term clinical outcome of patients who failed catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation.

Aims: Left atrial ablation fails to prevent symptomatic recurrences of atrial fibrillation (AF) in 20-30% of patients up to 3 years of follow-up despite multiple procedures. Data are lacking on the long-term clinical outcome of those patients for whom the decision was taken to renounce performing further ablation procedures.

Methods And Results: In this multicentre study, 218 (34%) of 631 consecutive patients, who had undergone AF catheter ablation in the years 2001-11 for drug-refractory symptomatic AF, had symptomatic AF recurrences after 1.

Straight screw-in atrial leads "J-post shaped" in right appendage versus J-shaped systems for permanent atrial pacing: a safety comparison.

Background And Objectives: The reliability of active-fixation atrial leads has been compared with that of passive-fixation leads; comparisons have also been made between straight and J-shaped screw-in lead systems. However, few data are available on procedural and short-term safety. This retrospective study compared the procedural safety of non-pre-shaped screw-in leads with that of passive- and active-fixation J-shaped leads.

Late atrial tachycardia following pulmonary vein isolation: analysis of successful discrete ablation sites.

Background: The role of additional left atrial linear lesions performed during pulmonary vein isolation (PVI) to prevent atrial tachycardias (ATs) is not yet clear.

Objective: To analyse successful ablation sites of late-onset post-PVI AT, and to understand whether additional ablation lines at mitral isthmus and left atrium (LA) roof could have been useful in preventing these jatrogenic ATs.

Methods: From March, 2002 to August, 2008, 366 patients underwent PVI alone for drug-refractory atrial fibrillation (AF).

Integration of three-dimensional left atrial magnetic resonance images into a real-time electroanatomic mapping system: validation of a registration method.

Background: The alignment of three-dimensional (3D) left atrial images acquired by magnetic resonance (MR) with the anatomical information yielded by 3D mapping systems is one of the most critical issues in image integration techniques for catheter ablation of atrial fibrillation (AF). We assessed the accuracy of a simplified method of superimposing 3D MR left atrial images on real-time left atrial electroanatomic maps (registration).

Methods: MR data on the left atrium in 40 patients with drug-refractory AF were imported into the CartoMerge (Biosense Webster, Inc.

Atrio-ventricular block during left atrial flutter ablation.

We present a case of a patient treated with catheter ablation for atrial fibrillation aiming to pulmonary veins isolation. During ablation, atrial fibrillation organized into a left atrial flutter. Electroanatomic and electrophysiologic mapping revealed the anterior left atrium area between the mitral annulus and left atrium septum as a critical region for flutter ablation.