Outcomes in Patients With Prolonged PR Interval or First-Degree Atrioventricular Block
- Vijay Arun Doraiswamy, MD temple007@gmail.comDepartment of Internal MedicineUniversity of Arizona College of MedicineTucson
Since this article does not have an abstract, we have provided the first 150 words of the full text.
- KEYWORDS:
- ATRIAL FIBRILLATION
- ATRIOVENTRICULAR BLOCK
- ELECTROCARDIOGRAPHY
- ELECTROCARDIOGRAPHY, AMBULATORY
- HYPERTROPHY, LEFT VENTRICULAR
- MORTALITY
- OUTCOME ASSESSMENT (HEALTH CARE)
- PACEMAKER, ARTIFICIAL
To the Editor: Dr Cheng and colleagues1 demonstrated that PR interval prolongation is associated with an increased risk of future AF, need for pacemaker implantation, and all-cause mortality. To help validate this study and determine whether its findings can be incorporated into clinical practice, it would be helpful to have a number of pieces of information about associated conditions that could have contributed to PR prolongation and its outcomes.
The authors included pacemaker implantation as one of the variables because it might act as a surrogate for advanced conduction system disease. However, the requirements for pacemaker in these patients were not clearly described. The only predisposing conditions noted were high-grade AV nodal block (present in 36% of the participants) and sinus node dysfunction (present in 53%). Other conduction abnormalities in association with PR prolongation, which by themselves could lead to pacemaker placement and to all-cause mortality,2 were not …
