Increased preexcitation on electrocardiography improves accuracy of algorithms for accessory pathway localization in Wolff–Parkinson–White syndrome

Abstract

Background: Several electrocardiographic (ECG) algorithms have been developed for predicting accessory pathway (AP) location in Wolff–Parkinson–White syndrome. However, their accuracy may be related to the manifested degree of preexcitation on ECG.

Aims: Our goal was to assess the effect of the degree of preexcitation on the accuracy of 4 traditional AP localization algorithms and to compare them with the algorithm specifically designed for ECGs with maximal preexcitation (Pambrun)

Methods: The study included 300 patients who underwent successful ablation of an overt atrioventricular AP. Resting and maximally preexcited ECGs obtained during incremental atrial pacing were assessed using 4 traditional AP localization algorithms: Xie, d’Avila, Iturralde, and Taguchi. Maximally preexcited ECGs were additionally assessed with the Pambrun algorithm. We compared the precision of the algorithms to predict accurate or anatomically adjacent AP location.

Results: Theoverall accuracy of traditional AP localization algorithms using resting ECG ranged between 26% and 53.7% and improved to a range of 47.3% to 69.7% when adjacent locations were accepted. When used with maximal preexcitation, all algorithms had significantly higher accuracy, with a mean improvement of 14.3 and 15.6 percentage points for precise and adjacent sites, respectively. The Pambrun algorithm for maximally preexcited ECGs had the highest precision for both accurate and adjacent locations of the APs (89.7% and 97%, respectively).

Conclusions: Greater preexcitation on ECG improved the accuracy of the traditional AP localization algorithms. The algorithm designed to use maximally preexcited ECGs has the best accuracy. Maximally preexcited ECG recordings should preferably be used in clinical practice to facilitate the ablation procedure.