Impact of atrial programmed electrical stimulation techniques on unipolar electrogram morphology.

Introduction: Intra-atrial conduction abnormalities are associated with the development of atrial fibrillation (AF) and cause morphological changes of the unipolar atrial electrogram (U-AEGM). This study examined the impact of different atrial programmed electrical stimulation (APES) protocols on U-AEGM morphology to identify the most optimal APES protocol provoking conduction abnormalities.

Methods: APES techniques (14 protocols) were applied in 30 patients referred for an electrophysiology study, consisting of fixed rate, extra, and decremental stimuli at different frequencies.