Fifteen CS patients presenting with advanced or complete AV block were retrospectively investigated. All patients were treated with 30 mg/day of prednisone after device implantation, which was tapered to a maintenance dosage of 5-10 mg/day. During a mean follow-up of 7.1 years, AV block resolved to normal conduction or first-degree AV block in 7 patients (recovery group). The improvement was driven within the first week of steroid therapy in 4 patients, while 3 patients showed late recovery of AV conduction. The remaining 8 patients were classified as the non-recovery group. The recovery group showed a higher left ventricular ejection fraction (69.4 卤 8.9% versus 44.1 卤 19.3%, p = 0.029) and higher prevalence of advanced AV block (87.5% versus 28.6%, p = 0.040) compared with those of the non-recovery group. In patients with the recovery group, there was no late recurrence of AV block during the follow-up period.
Early initiation of steroid therapy may be effective for AV block, and steroid therapy before device implantation is a possible therapeutic strategy for some selected patients.