The Effect of Intracardial Pacemaker Therapy on Cerebral Blood Flow and Electroencephalogram in Patients with Complete Atrioventricular Block

Abstract

In seven patients with complete A-V block of long duration (five suffering from Adams-Stokes attacks), the cerebral blood flow was found to be significantly decreased and there was also moderate slowing of the electroencephalogram. Artificial pacing increased the heart rate from 39 to 72/min. Postoperative studies showed that in six of the seven cases the cerebral blood flow had increased and that the mean spectral frequency of the EEG had increased. In two patients follow-up studies suggest that the normalization of the EEG and cerebral blood flow may take some time to develop fully. The changes in EEG and cerebral blood flow paralleled the clinical improvement which accompanied the pacemaker therapy in all the patients.