Undersensing of ventricular fibrillation in a noncommitted nonthoracotomy cardioverter defibrillator system

Evaluation of the impact of undersensing on VF detection time and the relationship of undersensing to the programmed shock energy.

Failure to reconfirm an ongoing arrhythmia due to undersensing by a noncommitted ICD might prolong the time to therapy.

We measured initial detection times and redetection times at predischarge and at 2 and 6 months in 29 patients (22 men, mean age 60 years) with a noncommitted nonthoracotomy ICD. Telemetry data and output markers were used to analyze each induction.

Undersensing leading to failure to reconfirm was present in 44 (11.1%) of 398 episodes of sustained VF and prolonged significantly the median initial detection time from 2.3 seconds (25th and 75th percentiles: 2 and 2.6 s, respectively) to 5.45 seconds (4.3 and 7.35 s, P < 0.0001). One episode required external defibrillation after reconfirmation failure occurred during charging; the total detection time prior to shock was 46 seconds. In a subset of 87 episodes with failed first shocks, the initial detection time was 2.3 seconds (2.1 and 2.8 s) and the redetection time 3 seconds (2.5 and 4.77 s, P < 0.0001). The presence of undersensing prolonged the redetection from 2.6 seconds (2.35 and 3.1 s) to 5.4 seconds (4.53 and 7.35 s, P < 0.0001). Undersensing was more prevalent during the redetection period (P = 0.004) and in episodes of sustained VF in which the first shock energy was higher than 15 J (19.7% vs 5.8%, P < 0.0001).

In this automatic defibrillator system, undersensing occurs in 11% of the sustained VF inductions and prolongs detection time significantly. Redetection is longer than initial detection mostly due to the presence of undersensing, the frequency of which is proportional to the programmed energy. The clinical significance of this finding is unknown.