11 Aug Ventricular Arrhythmias More Common During Waking Hours and In Spring

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:

Dr. Cheng

Dr. Alan Cheng, MD MBA
Vice President at Medtronic
Clinical Research and Therapy Development, Cardiac Rhythm Management
Medtronic, Minnesota 55112 

MedicalResearch.com: What is the background for this study? What are the main findings?

Response: Ventricular arrhythmias can be life threatening among patients with certain types of heart disease. While implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) have become the primary means in managing these events, we still don’t fully understand when ventricular arrhythmias occur and whether they are just random events that occur at any time of the day.

We pooled patient-level data from 6 prospective studies of ICD recipients and leveraged the continuous monitoring features of the ICD to understand when ventricular arrhythmias occur. Across almost 4000 patients with almost 2 years average follow up from the time of implant, we saw that ventricular arrhythmias aren’t randomly distributed throughout the day. In fact, there is a predilection for these events to occur during normal waking hours as compared to the times of the day when most patients are asleep.

Additionally, we found that across the year, the spring season had higher rates of arrhythmia occurrence when compared to summer. We didn’t observe any differences in arrhythmia occurrence by the days of the week or months of the year. This analysis is not the first to explore this question but it is the largest to date. 

MedicalResearch.com: What should readers take away from your report? 

Response: These findings suggest that ventricular arrhythmias do not occur randomly and are likely triggered by certain times of the day and seasons in the year. While one can speculate why they occur when they occur, additional studies will be needed to tease out what the triggers are with the hope that if we can address these triggers, perhaps we can reduce their occurrence in the future.

MedicalResearch.com: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this work?

Response: These observations pave the way for additional questions on “why”. If we can understand the reasons for why they occur when they do, perhaps we can identify ways to address these triggers and prevent ventricular arrhythmias from occurring in the first place.

Disclosures: The studies used in this analysis were funded by Medtronic, a manufacturer of ICDs. The authors of the study also have relationships with industry that are fully disclosed in the paper. 

Citation:

Diurnal, Seasonal, and Monthly Variations in Ventricular Arrhythmias in Patients With Implantable Cardioverter-Defibrillators
AbhishekMaan MD, ScM,n LouSherfesee PhD,  DanielLexcen PhD,  E. KevinHeist MD, PhD, AlanCheng MD

JACC: Clinical Electrophysiology Available online 31 July 2019

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Last Updated on August 11, 2019 by Marie Benz MD FAAD