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Objective: Identifying whether experienced symptom burden in individuals with medical predisposition indicates somatic symptom disorder (SSD) is challenging, given the high overlap in the phenomenology of symptoms within this group. This study aimed to enhance understanding SSD in individuals at risk for heart failure., Subjects and Methods: Cross-sectional data from the Hamburg City Health Study was analyzed including randomly selected individuals from the general population of Hamburg, Germany recruited from February 2016 to November 2018. SSD symptoms assessed with the Somatic Symptom Scale-8 and the Somatic Symptom Disorder-12 scale were categorized by applying cluster analysis including 412 individuals having at least 5% risk for heart failure-related hospitalization within the next ten years. Clusters were compared for biomedical and psychological factors using ANOVA and chi-square tests. Linear regressions, adjusting for sociodemographic, biomedical, and psychological factors, explored associations between clusters with general practitioner visits and quality of life., Results: Three clusters emerged: none (n = 215; 43% female), moderate (n = 151; 48% female), and severe (n = 46; 54% female) SSD symptom burden. The SSS-8 mean sum scores were 3.4 (SD = 2.7) for no, 6.4 (SD = 3.4) for moderate, and 12.4 (SD = 3.7) for severe SSD symptom burden. The SSD-12 mean sum scores were 3.1 (SD = 2.6) for no, 12.2 (SD = 4.2) for moderate, and 23.5 (SD = 6.7) for severe SSD symptom burden. Higher SSD symptom burden correlated with biomedical factors (having diabetes: p = .005 and dyspnea: p ≤ .001) and increased psychological burden (depression severity: p ≤ .001; anxiety severity: p ≤ .001), irrespective of heart failure risk (p = .202). Increased SSD symptoms were associated with more general practitioner visits (β = 0.172; p = .002) and decreased physical quality of life (β = -0.417; p ≤ .001)., Conclusion: Biomedical factors appear relevant in characterizing individuals at risk for heart failure, while psychological factors affect SSD symptom experience. Understanding SSD symptom diversity and addressing subgroup needs could prove beneficial., Competing Interests: Declaration of competing interest The authors declare the following financial interests/personal relationships which may be considered as potential competing interests. The Hamburg City Health Study is funded by euCanSHare, Joachim Herz Foundation, Foundation Leducq, Innovative Medicine Initiative, Deutsche Gesetzliche Unfallversicherung (DGUV), Deutsches Krebsforschungszentrum (DKFZ), Deutsches Zentrum für Herz-Kreislauf-Forschung (DZHK), Deutsche Stiftung für Herzforschung, Seefried Stiftung, Bayer, Amgen, Novartis, Schiller, Topcon, Unilever, and by donations from the "Förderverein zur Förderung der HCHS e.V.", and TePe®. All authors declare that they have no known competing financial interests or personal relationships that could have appeared to influence the work reported in this paper., (Copyright © 2023. Published by Elsevier Inc.)

Different follow-up methods have been used to report success rates after AF ablation. Recent studies have shown that intermittent rhythm monitoring underestimates the actual AF recurrence rate. We therefore report our experience with continuous rhythm monitoring by implantable loop recorder (ILR) in a large patient cohort. Between 09/2008 and 12/2012, 343 cardiac surgical patients underwent concomitant surgical AF ablation. ILR implantation was performed in 206 patients. ILR interrogation was accomplished at 3, 6 and 12 months postoperatively. Successful ablation was defined as AF Burden <0.5 %. Primary outcome of the study was freedom from AF at 12-month follow-up. Mean patient's age was 70.5 ± 7.4 years. No major ablation- or ILR-related complications occurred. In 4 patients (1.9 %) ILR had to be explanted due to ILR-related wound infection (n = 2) or chronic pain (n = 2). Survival rate at 1-year follow-up was 96.6 %. Freedom from AF rate after 1-year follow-up was 68.5 and 63.6 % off antiarrhythmic drugs, respectively. Statistically significant predictors for successful ablation at 1-year follow-up were smaller LA diameter, shorter duration of AF and preoperative paroxysmal AF. Demographic data, indication for surgery, lesion set and used energy source had no impact on freedom from AF after 1 year. Continuous ILR monitoring after concomitant surgical AF ablation was safe and feasible, with registered freedom from AF rate of 68.5 % at 1-year follow-up. Thus continuous rhythm monitoring provides reliable outcome data and helps to guide antiarrhythmic therapy.

Objectives: Various lesion sets and subsequent success rates have been reported in patients receiving concomitant surgical ablation for atrial fibrillation. However, most of these results have been obtained by discontinuous monitoring. We report results using continuous event recorder rhythm monitoring to compare more accurately the efficacy of a left versus biatrial lesion set to treat patients with persistent atrial fibrillation., Methods: Between July 2008 and December 2011, 66 patients with persistent or long-standing persistent atrial fibrillation underwent concomitant surgical atrial fibrillation ablation with a biatrial lesion set and subcutaneous event recorder implantation. The results and outcomes were compared with a propensity score-matched cohort of 66 patients with a left atrial lesion set and event recorder implantation. Event recorder interrogation was performed at 3, 6, and 12 months follow-up., Results: The mean patient age was 70.2±7.4 years, and 70.3% were male. No major ablation-related complications occurred. One-year survival was 94.8% with no statistically significant differences between the 2 groups. The overall rate of freedom from atrial fibrillation was 57.3% and 64.4% after 3 and 12 months follow-up, respectively. Three months postoperatively, patients in the biatrial group had a slightly higher rate of freedom from atrial fibrillation (63.6% vs 52.3% P=.22), but it did not reach statistical significance. At 12 months follow-up, a statistically significant higher rate of freedom from atrial fibrillation was observed in patients with a biatrial lesion set (74.4% vs 55.8%; P=.026). The mean atrial fibrillation burden in all patients was 15.1%±12.5% in the biatrial group and 21.2%±14.4% in the left atrial group 12 months postoperatively (P=.03)., Conclusions: Continuous rhythm monitoring by subcutaneous event recorder implantation was safe and feasible. In patients undergoing biatrial ablation, a statistically significant higher rate of freedom from atrial fibrillation was observed at 12 months follow-up., (Copyright © 2014 The American Association for Thoracic Surgery. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.)

Objectives: Concomitant ablation is an established therapy in cardiac surgical patients with atrial fibrillation (AF). Post-discharge care seems to be an essential factor for clinical outcome. We analysed the influence of event recorder (ER) implantation and therapy guidance by the results of continuous rhythm monitoring of consecutive postoperative follow-up by our department of electrophysiology., Methods: Between July 2003 and August 2010, 401 cardiac surgical patients underwent concomitant surgical AF ablation therapy. Since August 2009, an ER (REVEAL XT, Medtronic, Inc., Minneapolis, MN, USA) was implanted in 98 patients intraoperatively. ER interrogation was performed by our department of electrophysiology 3, 6 and 12 months postoperatively. Results and outcomes were compared with a matched cohort of patients with ablation and no ER implantation. In those patients, rhythm follow-up was obtained by 24-h Holter ECG. Primary end-point of the study was sinus rhythm rate after 12 months., Results: Mean patient's age was 67.0 ± 9.7 years, and 68.4% were male. No major ablation-related complications occurred. The overall sinus rhythm rate was 65.3% after 1-year follow-up. The sinus rhythm rate off antiarrhythmic drugs was 60.3%. The conversion rate tended to be higher in patients with an implanted ER (69.3 vs 60.1%, respectively; P = 0.098). Also, the sinus rhythm rate of anti-arrhythmic drugs was higher in the ER group (64.3 vs 56.2). Patients with ER were seen more often by a cardiologist in the first postoperative year (3.1 ± 0.8 vs 1.5 ± 0.9; P < 0.05) and received significantly more additional procedures, like electrical cardioversion or additional catheter-based ablation (16.1 vs 4.3%; P < 0.001; 11.2 vs 3.1%; P < 0.001)., Conclusions: Implantation of an ER with link-up to a cardiology and/or electrophysiology provides optimized anti-arrhythmic drug management and higher rates of consecutive procedures like cardioversion or additional catheter-based ablation. As a result, a trend to higher sinus rhythm conversion rate was observed after 1-year follow-up.

Background: Recently, subcutaneous implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (S-ICD) has become available. The aim of our study was to assess the efficacy of S-ICD in a clinical setting., Methods and Results: Between June 2010 and July 2011, 40 consecutive patients (42 ± 15 years; body mass index, 27 ± 6 kg/m(2); left ventricular ejection fraction, 47 ± 15%; 28 men) received an S-ICD for primary (n=17) or secondary prevention (n=23 [58%]) at 3 institutions in Germany. Intraoperative defibrillation efficacy testing failed in 1 patient with severely reduced left ventricular ejection fraction; testing was effective in all other patients. All episodes stored in the S-ICD were analyzed for appropriate and inappropriate detection, as well as effective shock delivery to convert ventricular tachyarrhythmia into sinus rhythm. During a median follow-up of 229 (interquartile range, 116-305) days, 4 patients experienced 21 episodes, with correct detection of ventricular tachyarrhythmia and subsequent shock therapy. A total of 28 shocks were delivered in these 4 patients. Mixed logistic regression modeling revealed a shock efficacy of 96.4% (95% CI, 12.8%-100%). The efficacy of first shocks, however, was only 57.9% (95% CI, 35.6%-77.4%). Four episodes were incorrectly classified as ventricular tachyarrhythmia, which led to inappropriate shock delivery in 2 patients., Conclusions: Ineffective shock delivery may occur in patients with S-ICD, even after successful intraoperative testing. Multicenter trials are required with close monitoring of safety and efficacy end points to identify patients who may be at risk for shock failure.