Endothelial Function and Cardiac Output in RV Pacing

Pacing from the right ventricle (as is current practice in patients implanted with permanent pacemakers for bradycardia), has been associated with worse outcomes particularly in heart failure patients. Recent clinical trials suggest that chronic right ventricular pacing (VP) is associated with worsening heart failure, increased strokes and atrial fibrillation. Hemodynamically, right VP results in delayed activation and contraction of the LV which can give rise to functional mitral regurgitation, shortened diastolic filling time and thus reduced coronary filling, as well as abnormal arterial pulsatile flow. The mechanisms for the deleterious effects of right VP in heart failure patients have not been previously investigated. Our aim of this study is therefore to investigate the hemodynamic effects of right VP in stable heart failure patients in terms of exercise cardiac output (CO, an important measure of myocardial function and prognosis), as well as endothelial function which may be deranged as a result of abnormal arterial pulsatile flow.