[Stored electrograms in pacemakers and ICDs].

Stored electrograms (EGMs) represent an important development in pacemaker and ICD therapy. The most important issue in pacemaker EGMs is the confirmation of the detection of atrial tachyarrhythmias, especially atrial fibrillation. In ICD therapy, the discrimination between ventricular and supraventricular tachycardia (i.e., detection of inadequate therapy) is of central interest. Unfortunately, systematic"instructions" for interpreting stored EGMs in systems by different manufacturers are not available and the knowledge on this topic is limited to (too) few experts. The contributions in this issue aim at explaining the interpretation of stored EGMs in systems by different manufacturers, providing an understanding of marker annotations and EGM registrations in clinical examples. With the aim of improving pacemaker and ICD therapy, a broad distribution of knowledge on the usefulness and the practical use of stored EGMs is highly desirable.