Feasibility of Single-lead Cardiac Resynchronization and Defibrillation Therapy in an Animal Model

Conduction system pacing (CSP) has emerged as an alternative to cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT); however, there is limited experience with CSP using implantable cardiac defibrillator (ICD) leads. The achievement of CSP with an ICD lead may yield comparable results to cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillator (CRT-D) therapy using fewer leads. We implanted the Biotronik Linox DX "VDD"-programmable ICD lead in a swine model to investigate the feasibility of "single-lead" CRT-D implantation. With the lead embedded in the basal right ventricular septum, morphologic criteria for CSP were achieved, and successful defibrillation was performed while maintaining atrial sensing. Future work may assure reproducibility of these findings and further determine the feasibility of a single-lead CRT-D.