Performance of Leadless Pacemaker in Japanese Patients vs. Rest of the World - Results From a Global Clinical Trial -

Background: A global study designed to demonstrate the safety and efficacy of a transcatheter pacing system included 38 Japanese patients enrolled at 4 sites. Subgroup analysis to evaluate the performance of the leadless intracardiac transcatheter pacing system in Japanese patients was performed. Methods and Results: Safety and efficacy outcomes, patient and implant procedure characteristics, and patient and physician acceptability from the Japanese population were compared with those from outside Japan. Differences in patient characteristics, implant procedure characteristics and patient acceptability were observed. There were no major complications in Japanese patients and pacing thresholds remained low and stable throughout follow-up. There were no observable differences between Japanese patients and patients from outside Japan in the freedom from major complication rate at 12-months post-implant (100.0% vs. 95.7%, P=0.211) or physician acceptability. Conclusions: Although some differences in specific baseline characteristics, such as body size and pacing indication, and in implant procedure characteristics, including anticoagulation strategy and hospitalization period, were observed in the Japanese patients, transcatheter pacemaker performance was similar to that in the global trial. (Clinical Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov ID NCT02004873.)