Ventricular Pacing failure

Patient

This 65-year-old man received an Ensura dual chamber pacemaker for treatment of syncope due to high-grade AV conduction defect; he suffered from end-stage renal failure and sustained a syncopal event a few hours before undergoing hemodialysis, 2 months after implantation of the pacemaker.



Trace

The first channel is lead I of the surface ECG with the markers superimposed, the second shows the atrial EGM, the third and fourth show the ventricular EGM, and the last channel is lead III;

  1. accurate atrial sensing initiating an AV delay and ventricular pacing (AS-VP); the ventricular EGM and both surface leads show the absence of ventricular capture (no ventricular signal after the pacing stimulus);
  2. the spontaneous ventricular event after the preceding P wave is properly sensed (VS);
  3. a new atrial sensing-ventricular pacing sequence (AS-VP) is ineffective; the P wave is blocked; the rhythm is consistent with type I (Wenckebach) second degree AV block (progressive prolongation of the PR interval followed by blocked P wave);
  4. ineffective ventricular pacing; the following QRS was not sensed, not due, however, to faulty sensing; instead, the QRS fell in the post-ventricular pacing ventricular blanking period, a period of absolute ventricular refractoriness and, therefore, was not sensed;
  5. continuation of missing ventricular capture;

Comments

This pacemaker was programmed at a pacing amplitude of 2.5V / 0.4 ms. In hemodialyzed patients, the status of electrolytes, e.g. sodium, potassium, calcium, and glucose levels change constantly with possible concomitant changes in pacing threshold, requiring a regular monitoring of the pacing output and consequent modifications in order to reliably capture the myocardium. With this in mind, Capture Management is a noteworthy function. When Capture Management is active, the pacemaker automatically monitors the pacing threshold at regular intervals. After it has measured the threshold, the pacemaker sets a target output as a function of a programmable safety margin. This guarantees a reliable capture in patients whose pacing threshold varies widely, without having to permanently program high pacing amplitudes.
In this patient, variations in the ventricular threshold were observed, reaching 3.5 V / 0.4 ms. No lead dislodgement was found on chest X-ray.

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