Research is about challenging common assumptions. A collaboration between the Stokke group at IEMR and the Arrhythmia Unit at Department of Cardiology, Oslo University Hospital Rikshospitalet have tested the utility of the most common way of categorizing premature ventricular complexes (PVCs) based on ECG. Medical Research Curriculum Student Stine Aagaard-Nilsen analyzed a large cohort of patients evaluated at the Arrhythmias Unit. In her analysis, the inferior axis and left bundle branch block pattern (I-LBBB) proved insufficient for prediction of acute success of catheter ablation. One reason is that data from this cohort rejects the assumption that PVCs with this pattern always originate from the outflow tracts, and are therefore easily accessible for ablation. The study shows that this is not the case in a significant number of patients. Therefore, more specific ECG-algorithms should be used to identify the origin of PVCs, also by the general cardiologist referring patients to catheter ablation. Further studies are needed to identify predictors for acute success of catheter ablation for PVCs.
The American Journal of Cardiology
https://doi.org/10.1016/j.amjcard.2023.06.013.
