Bi-ventricular pacing or pacing the two lower chambers of the heart is superior to pacing only the right ventricle to prevent cardiac enlargement in pacemaker patients, according to a new study.
Medtronic’s Pacing to Avoid Cardiac Enlargement (PACE) trial shows that bi-ventricular pacing better preserves the heart’s normal left ventricle size and pumping ability in pacemaker patients.
The PACE study, carried out on 177 patients at four hospitals in Asia, used a Medtronic Insync III cardiac resynchronisation therapy pacemaker or bi-ventricular pacemaker without defibrillation.
The study found that after one year of pacing, patients with pacing in right and left ventricles had no significant changes in left ventricle size while patients paced only in the right ventricle developed enlarged left ventricles.
