Trends, Prevalence of Bradyarrhythmia and Pacemaker Implantation in Patients with Parkinson’s Disease

TL;DR

This study examines how common bradyarrhythmia and pacemaker implantation are in Parkinson’s disease patients and finds that while bradyarrhythmia is increasing, pacemaker use remains stable.

Contribution

The study provides updated trends and risk factors for bradyarrhythmia and pacemaker implantation in Parkinson’s disease patients using a large national database.

Findings

The prevalence of bradyarrhythmia in Parkinson’s disease patients increased from 291.9 to 463.8 per 10,000 hospitalizations.

Pacemaker implantation prevalence remained stable at 79.9 per 10,000 hospitalizations.

Age ≥ 65, male sex, and several comorbidities were linked to higher bradyarrhythmia risk.

Abstract

Bradyarrhythmia is associated with an increased risk of falls, syncope, and sudden cardiac arrest in Parkinson’s disease (PD). However, studies investigating bradyarrhythmia in PA have been scarce. Therefore, we aimed to assess trends, prevalence, and risk factors of bradyarrhythmia and pacemaker implantation in PD patients. The National Inpatient Sample was utilized to identify patients’ data with primary and secondary diagnoses of Parkinson’s disease (PD) from 2016 to 2020. A total of 333,242 patients had a PD diagnosis; of these, 5092 (1.5%) had comorbid diagnoses of bradyarrhythmia. The prevalence of bradyarrhythmia in patients with PD was 351.9 per 10,000 hospitalizations (3.5%), with an increase from 291.9 to 463.8 per 10,000. However, the trends remained relatively stable. The overall prevalence of pacemaker implantation in patients with PD was 79.9 per 10,000 hospitalizations (0.8%). The overall trend of pacemaker implantation was stable in patients with PD. Age ≥ 65, male sex, and comorbidities (atrial fibrillation, coronary artery disease, heart failure, hypertension, liver failure, obesity, peripheral vascular disease, renal failure) were associated with a higher likelihood of bradyarrhythmia in patients with PD. This study’s findings revealed an increase in the prevalence of bradyarrhythmia. However, the prevalence of pacemaker implantation remained relatively stable over the study period.