Cardiac pacing. A review.

Pacing is a field of rapid clinical progress and technologic advances. Clinical progress in the 1990s included the refinement of indications for pacing as well as the use of pacemakers for new, nonbradycardiac indications, such as the treatment of cardiomyopathies and CHF and the prevention of atrial fibrillation. Important published data and studies in progress are shedding new light on issues of pacing mode selection, and they may influence future practice significantly. Important technologic advances include development of new rate-adaptive sensors and sensor combinations and the evolution of pacemakers into sophisticated diagnostic devices with the capability to store data and ECGs. Automatic algorithms monitor the patient for appropriate capture, sensing, battery status, and lead impedance, providing better patient safety and pacemaker longevity.