Multipoint pacing activation significantly reduces battery longevity compared with that for conventional CRT configuration. When reasonable MPP LV vector PCTs (≤4.0 V) are achieved, the decrease in battery longevity is relatively small which may prompt the clinician to activate MPP.

Background The differential diagnosis of regular wide QRS complex tachycardia (RWQRST) remains the subject of numerous publications, all of which aim at diagnosis during the acute phase. Although an accurate diagnosis is necessary to make long‐term decisions, it often leads to invasive testing. Methods Criteria with high positive predictive values (PPVs) for diagnosis can be obtained by analyzing the electrocardiogram (ECG) data during RWQRST and comparing them with these data at baseline. By assigning points to these criteria, a scoring algorithm to accurately diagnose numerous patients can be obtained. A total of 352 consecutive patients with RWQRST were included. Two electrophysiologists blind to patient condition analyzed the 16 criteria considered as having high PPVs. Results A total of 149 (42.3%) cases were supraventricular tachycardia (SVT), and 203 (57.7%) cases were ventricular tachycardia (VT). A higher percentage of patients with VT had structural heart disease (86.7% vs 16.1%). Seven of the 16 criteria analyzed had PPVs > 95%, and each criterion was assigned a score. A final score of –1 was indicative of SVT (PPV 98%); a score of 1 was indicative of VT (PPV 98%); and a score of ≥2 was indicative of VT (PPV 100%). A score of ≠0 was obtained for 51.7% of all cases of tachycardia, making it possible to reach a highly accurate diagnosis in approximately half of all cases. No cases of VT scored –1, and no cases of SVT scored ≥2. Conclusions The current scoring system stands out for its high PPV (98%) and specificity (98%), enabling an accurate diagnosis for more than half of the patients.

Introduction: Between 7% and 15% of patients with an indication for an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) are not eligible for implantation of a subcutaneous implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (S-ICD) on the basis of the result of the conventional left parasternal electrocardiographic screening (LPES). Our objective was to determine the impact of systematically performing right parasternal electrocardiographic screening (RPES) in addition to conventional LPES, in terms of increasing both the total percentage of potentially eligible patients for S-ICD implantation and the number of suitable vectors per patient. Methods and results: Consecutive patients from the outpatient device clinic who already had an implanted ICD, and no requirement for pacing were enrolled. Conventional left parasternal electrode position and right parasternal electrode positions were used. The automatic screening tool was used to analyze the recordings. Screenings were performed in the supine and standing positions.Overall, 209 patients were included. The mean age was 63.4 ± 13 years, 59.8% had ischemic heart disease, mean QRS duration was 100 ± 31 ms, and 69.9% had a primary prevention ICD indication. Based on conventional isolated LPES, 12.9% of patients were not eligible for S-ICD compared with 11.5% based on RPES alone (P = .664).Considering LPES and RPES together, only 7.2% of patients were not eligible for S-ICD (P < .001). Moreover, the number of patients with more than one suitable vector increased from 66.5% with isolated LPES to 82.3% (23.7% absolute increase [P < .001]). Conclusion: Adding an automated RPES to the conventional automated LPES increased patient eligibility for the S-ICD significantly. Moreover, combined screening increased the number of suitable vectors per eligible patient. K E Y W O R D S automated electrocardiographic screening, electrocardiography, inappropriate shocks, subcutaneous defibrillator, sudden cardiac death How to cite this article: Arias MA, Pachón M, Sánchez-Iglesias I, et al. Impact of routine right parasternal electrocardiographic screening in assessing eligibility for subcutaneous implantable cardioverter-defibrillator.

Aims The purpose of this study was to systematically quantify the level of acute parasympathetic denervation in a stepwise fashion by means of extracardiac vagal stimulation (ECVS) by positioning a quadripolar catheter in the internal jugular vein, in a cohort of patients undergoing second-generation cryoballoon ablation for paroxysmal atrial fibrillation. Methods Fifty patients with symptomatic paroxysmal atrial fibrillation, having undergone extracardiac vagal stimulation before and after ablation by means of second-generation cryoballoon second-generation cryoballoon ablation, were included. Results The extracardiac vagal stimulation performed preablation provoked cardioinhibitory responses in all patients with mean pause duration of 10130.6 ± 3280.0 ms. At the end of the procedure, the VRs were significantly diminished with mean pause of 1687.5 ms ± 2183.7 ms (P = 0.00 compared with the pause before the procedure). Conclusion The ECVS proved to be a reproducible, feasible and reliable method to quantify the degree of parasympathetic denervation during CB-A. In all patients, significant cardiac parasympathetic denervation could be observed at the end of the procedure. Responses to ECVS were more specific to quantify the vagal denervation than the increase in the heart rate. However larger studies are needed to confirm this observation.