Use of conventional dual chamber pacemakers with custom lead adapters to induce atrial fibrillation or heart failure in dogs.

Abstract

The purpose of this article is to show how custom "Y"-lead adapters and standard dual-chamber pacemakers can be used to produce pacing paradigms that will lead to stable experimental models of heart failure and atrial fibrillation. With two custom lead adapters we used both ports of two dual-chamber clinical pacemakers to independently apply various pacing paradigms to either the ventricles or the atria of dogs. Because both ports of the ventricular pacemaker were used to apply stimuli through one lead, the device did not have to be modified to obtain ventricular pacing rates that are sufficiently elevated to lead to tachycardia-induced heart failure. Similarly, simultaneous use of both ports of the atrial pacemaker can be used to apply stimuli through one atrial lead to induce sustained atrial fibrillation. These techniques facilitate induction of experimental models of heart failure and atrial fibrillation without the need for modification of the clinical pacemaker.