A simulation study of ventricular rate smoothing during atrial fibrillation

Ventricular rate smoothing (VRS) algorithms have been proposed to regularize ventricular response during atrial fibrillation (AF) in order to improve patient´s symptoms and hemodynamics. In the present study, we conduct computer simulations to evaluate the performance of a new VRS algorithm based on a quantitative AF model. The results of this study show that the new VRS algorithm can effectively suppress the irregularity of the ventricular responses during AF without unnecessary high-rate ventricular pacing. Moreover, the percentage of ventricular paces is limited while many ventricular senses with normal rhythm and rate are preferably preserved.