Electrically Guided Bachmann's Bundle Pacing: A Lead Placement Strategy With Potential Antiarrhythmic Benefits

Not Applicable

• Conditions: Atrial Fibrillation
• Interventions: Procedure: Bachmann's bundle lead placement; Procedure: Right atrial appendage lead placement

• Registration Number: NCT05153291
• Lead Sponsor: University of Vermont

Brief Summary

Despite identification of optimal ventricular pacing sites, which not only avoid dyssynchronous activation but can restore ventricular synchrony, optimal atrial pacing sites have not yet been identified. Specialized conduction tracts do not exist in the atria as they do in the ventricle. Activating the atria in a manner that preserves or improves interatrial synchrony may provide clinical benefit based on recent data. Prior site-selective right atrial septal pacing (RAS) pacing studies relied on non-specific fluoroscopic guidance during lead placement. These studies were limited by the lack of an electrogram target and electrical measures of successful atrial resynchronization. The goal of this study is to prospectively evaluate Bachmann's bundle lead placement guided by fluoroscopy and electrical markers (an endocardial electrogram target and paced P-wave criteria) and determine its anti-arrhythmic efficacy compared with right atrial appendage (RAA) pacing. Patients presenting for pacemaker placement with an indication for an atrial lead are randomized to either electrically-guided BB lead placement or RAA lead placement and then followed for 15 months.

Detailed Description

Not available

Study Timeline

• Study Start: 2021-05-28
• Study First Submitted: 2021-11-15
• Study First Submitted QC: 2021-11-27
• Study First Posted: 2021-12-10
• Status Verified: 2022-03
• Last Update Submitted: 2022-03-08
• Last Update Posted: 2022-03-09
• Primary Completion: 2023-06-01
• Study Completion: 2023-06-01

Recruitment & Eligibility

• Status: UNKNOWN
• Sex: All
• Target Recruitment: 80

Inclusion Criteria

• Subject is >18 years old
• Subject is referred for permanent pacemaker implantation with an indication for an atrial lead
• Subject has either paroxysmal atrial fibrillation or baseline intra-atrial conduction delay (P-wave duration >120ms on a 12-lead ECG)
• Subject is expected to remain available for standard-of-care pacemaker follow-up visits and study questionnaires

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Exclusion Criteria

• Subject has permanent atrial fibrillation or is in atrial fibrillation in the pre-operative area prior to the procedure (inability to assess paced P-wave morphology)
• Subject has pacemaker implantation prior to planned atrioventricular nodal ablation
• Subject has resting spontaneous sinus rate >85 beats-per-minute
• Subject has left ventricular ejection fraction <45%
• Subject is unable or unwilling to complete baseline or follow up quality of life questionnaires
• Subject is currently enrolled in a potentially confounding trial
• Subject is pregnant
• Subject's anticipated life expectancy is less than 1 year

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Study & Design

• Study Type: INTERVENTIONAL
• Study Design: PARALLEL

Arm && Interventions

Group	Intervention	Description
Bachmann's bundle area pacing	Bachmann's bundle lead placement	Lead placement in Bachmann's bundle area
Right atrial appendage pacing	Right atrial appendage lead placement	Lead placement in the right atrial appendage

Primary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Atrial arrhythmia burden from pacemaker counters	Over 15 month follow up	Derived from pacemaker counters and expressed as the average percentage of time per day in atrial fibrillation/tachycardia.

Secondary Outcome Measures

Name	Time	Method
Atrial lead fluoroscopy time	At implant
Atrial lead complications	Over 15 month follow up
Hospitalization or urgent outpatient visit for atrial fibrillation	Within 15 months follow-up post pacemaker
Cerebrovascular accident	Within 15 months follow-up post pacemaker
Hospitalization or urgent outpatient visit for heart failure	Within 15 months follow-up post pacemaker
Atrial lead capture threshold (Volts)	Over 15 month follow up
Atrial lead sensing threshold (millivolts)	Over 15 month follow up
Atrial lead impedance threshold (Ohms)	Over 15 month follow up
Change in P-wave duration from sinus P-wave to paced P-wave in Bachmann's bundle and right atrial appendage lead groups	At implant
Atrial lead procedure time	At implant
Atrial Fibrillation Ablation	Within 15 months follow-up post pacemaker
Atrial Fibrillation Severity Scale Version 2.0	Over 15 month follow up	Change in quality of life. The Atrial Fibrillation Severity Scale (AFSS) is composed of 19 items investigating four domains: 1. AF burden (comprised of AF frequency + AF duration + AF severity): score range is 3-10, higher score = greater burden; 2. Health care utilization: score range is 0-7 for each question, higher score = more utilization; 3. Symptoms: score range is 0-35, higher score = greater symptom severity; 4. Global well-being: score range is 1-10, higher score = better quality of life
EQ-5D-3L survey (*EQ-5D-3L is the name of the instrument and is not an acronym)	Over 15 month follow up	Change in quality of life. The EQ-5D-3L is a standardized instrument to assess generic health-related quality of life and contains questions on five dimensions: mobility, self-care, usual activities, pain/discomfort, and anxiety/depression. For each of the five dimension, respondents are offered three response categories (no problems, some problems, extreme problems), leading to 243 possible health states. These health states are then converted into index based values (utilities) ranging from 0 to 1 by applying a valuation algorithm. The EQ-5D instrument includes a visual analogue scale (VAS), on which the patient is asked to score his/her current health state between 0 (worst imaginable health state) and 100 (best imaginable health state).
New start or up-titration of medications for the primary diagnosis of atrial fibrillation	Within 15 months follow-up post pacemaker

Trial Locations

Locations (1)

University of Vermont Medical Center; 🇺🇸 Burlington, Vermont, United States