Ventricular remodeling during long-term right ventricular pacing following His bundle ablation

To investigate ventricular remodeling during long-term right ventricular (RV) pacing after His bundle ablation (HBA) in patients with atrial arrhythmias, a retrospective analysis was performed on echocardiographic data from 45 patients (mean age 57 +/- 11 years) with atrial arrhythmias who underwent HBA and pacemaker implantation (HBA-PI) to control ventricular rate. Echocardiography was performed 1 year before HBA-PI, and up to 7 +/- 2 years of follow-up was conducted. An inverse linear relation was found between the relative increase of left ventricular (LV) end-diastolic diameter (EDD) during long-term RV pacing and LVEDD before HBA-PI (r = -0.61, p0.001). Patients were divided into 2 groups: those with LVEDDs smaller than the mean LVEDD of 50 mm (group I, 46 +/- 2 mm, n = 28) and those with LVEDDs50 mm (group II, 56 +/- 4 mm, n = 17). Before HBA-PI, patients in group I had significantly smaller LV weights (167 +/- 44 vs 238 +/- 56 g) and LV end-systolic diameters (30 +/- 2 vs 42 +/- 7 mm) and higher LV ejection fractions (64 +/- 5% vs 49+/- 12%) than those in group II. In group I, long-term RV pacing increased LVEDD, LV end-systolic diameter, LV weight, and left atrial diameter; increased mitral regurgitation; and decreased the LV ejection fraction and LV fractional shortening. No significant changes were observed during long-term RV pacing in group II. In conclusion, long-term RV pacing after HBA adversely affects LV structure and function in patients with initially normal LV dimensions and function.