The echocardiographic findings can be divided into four basic groups:
Tricuspid valve dysfunction
Tricuspid valve dysfunction not related to the route of ventricular
pacing prior to TLE (18.493%)
Lead-dependent tricuspid valve dysfunction (LDTD) (6.410%)
Presence of any shadows on the leads (64.85% of patients)
- Fibrous tissue binding the lead to the vena cava superior and right
heart structures (33.761%): to the SVC (5.98%), to the RA wall
(6.94%), to the tricuspid apparatus (9.62%) and to the RV wall
(11.22%)
- Fibrous tissue binding two leads (18.38%).
- AMEL (46.68% of patients): fibrous tissue encasing the lead
(17.094%), lead thickening (29.59%), blood clot on the lead
(8.013%) vegetation-like masses (3.953%)
- Vegetations (12.727%)
Presence of excess lead loops in the heart (19.338%)
Perforation or penetration of the lead through the cardiac wall up to
the epicardium (16.132%) (Table 2)