Temporary AVI pacing by chest wall stimulation.

Temporary atrial pacing (coded AVI pacing) has recently been proposed to assess atrial capture in patients with unipolar dual chamber pacemakers. This pacing mode can usually be achieved by programming the ventricular output to a subthreshold value. In patients with noncommitted bifocal pacemakers, AVI pacing can also be obtained by prolonging the programmed AV delay allowing for spontaneous conduction after atrial capture. However, in patients with prolonged AV conduction and a low aventricular stimulation threshold, ventricular stimulation cannot be prevented using the forementioned procedures. Using chest wall stimulation, we developed and tested a new method of temporary AVI pacing in patients with noncommitted DDD or DVI pacemakers.