Long-term prognosis of patients with permanent cardiac pacemaker indication in three referral cardiac centers in Cameroon: Insights from the National pacemaker registry

Atrial standstill is a rare arrhythmia defined by the absence of mechanical and electrical activity in the atria. Few cases of atrial standstill have been described in children, none of which have presented with cerebral infarction confirmed by imaging. We report a unique case of a 7-year-old girl presenting with expressive aphasia, central facial palsy and irregular pulse with cerebral infarction secondary to atrial standstill. This case illustrates that cardiogenic cerebral embolism in children can be caused by rare conditions like atrial standstill and should be considered in paediatric patients undergoing evaluation for stroke. There are no established treatment guidelines for atrial standstill. We recommend that treatment be directed towards any potential underlying cause. All patients with atrial standstill should receive long-term oral anticoagulation treatment and a permanent cardiac pacemaker implant to reduce the risk of further strokes or other cardiac events.

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Anxiety in patients with permanent cardiac pacemaker aged > 60 years old

Health & Research Journal ◽

10.12681/healthresj.23317 ◽

2020 ◽

Vol 6 (2) ◽

pp. 66

Author(s):

Stella Vasileiou ◽

Moschoula Mina Iordani ◽

Illias Martinis ◽

Alexandra Nikitopoulou ◽

Jona Sakiqi ◽

...

Keyword(s):

Associated Factors ◽

Cardiac Pacemaker ◽

Permanent Pacemaker ◽

Systematic Assessment ◽

Long Term Follow Up ◽

Low Levels ◽

Permanent Cardiac Pacemaker ◽

Implanted Device

Introduction: A cardiac pacemaker is a small implanted device to control abnormal heart rhythms. According to estimates, 3 million individuals worldwide live with an implanted permanent pacemaker (PPM) while about 600 thousand pacemakers are implanted, annually.Purpose: to explore anxiety of pacemaker recipients as well as all the associated demographic and self-reported characteristics.Material and Method: 100 outpatients with PPM were enrolled in the study. Collection of data was performed by the completion of the “Self-rating Anxiety Scale Zung (SAS)” which included patients' characteristics. Results: From the 100 participants 65% were men, 66% were >70 years old, 60% married, 50,5% of primary education and 90% lived in Attica. In terms of anxiety, 50% of recipients scored less than 48 on SAS scale (wide of range: 20-80) indicating mild to low levels of anxiety. Regarding associated factors, anxiety was found to be statistically significantly associated with gender (p=<0,001), understanding of provided information (p=<0,001), understanding of precautions in electromagnetic fields (p=0,021), desire for more frequent and long term follow-up and devise assessment (p=<0,001 and p=<0,001, respectively).Conclusions: Though pacemaker is an opportunity to prolong survival, however systematic assessment of anxiety and all the associated factors is considered to be of primary importance in clinical pacemaker settings.

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