Temporal Variability of Atrial Fibrillation in Pacemaker Recipients for Bradycardia: Implications for Crossover Designed Trials, Study Sample Size, and Identification of Responder Patients by Means of Arrhythmia Burden

Abstract

In patients paced for bradycardia and suffering from AT, high intrapatient variability in AT burden was measured. Various models of therapy impact showed that, in crossover trials of AT therapies, time-related fluctuations in AT burden negatively impact on sample sizes and impair the ability to identify patients as responders or nonresponders.