Limitations
There are several limitations to this study. First, this was a
single-center study and the number of analyzed patients was relatively
small. Second, atrial undersensing can occur during AHREs, which can
lead to either a failure to detect an AHRE or the truncation of a single
AHRE into multiple shorter episodes. Moreover, we could not analyze the
duration of AHREs in detail as a device parameter in this study because
its extraction from the device record was difficult. Third, there was a
slight configuration difference apparent in the AHRE detection because
of the different pacemaker manufacturers involved. Fourth, because the
measurements of P-waves were based on morphological determinations of
P-waves, some errors may have occurred. Finally, because we didn’t
evaluate the correlation between PWD and the future detection of AF,
further prospective studies are necessary that evaluate the relationship
between PWD values and clinical AF in patients with AHRE.