Study population
The institutional review boards at the Kitasato University school of
medicine approved retrospective review of these data. The study
population consisted of 258 consecutive patients newly implanted with
CIEDs between January 2010 and December 2014 at our institute. For the
study purpose of monitoring for AHREs, patients without atrial leads
were excluded. The CIEDs used in this study consisted of permanent DDD
pacemakers for SSS or atrioventricular block. Patients with implantable
cardioverter-defibrillators and cardiac resynchronization therapy
devices were excluded because such patients are believed to be at higher
risk for cardiac events. Each device was implanted in accordance with
the class I to IIa indications of the current American Heart
Association/JCS guidelines.11,12 Patients with
idiopathic cardiomyopathy, end-stage renal disease (with hemodialysis),
previously documented AF and/or without 12-lead ECG recordings made just
prior to DDD pacemaker implantation were also excluded. The absence of
AF history was confirmed by repeated body-surface ECG and/or Holter ECG.
Finally, a total of 101 patients were included in the study analysis
(Figure 1).