Clinical characteristics, mortality, cardiac hospitalization, and ventricular arrhythmias in patients undergoing CRT-D implantation: results of the ACTION-HF study.

Introduction: The characteristics and outcomes of patients who undergo cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) device implantation in current clinical practice may differ from those of reference trial populations. Study objectives were to assess 2-year outcomes in a population implanted with a CRT plus defibrillator device in accordance with the standard of care and to evaluate any independent association between clinical variables and outcome.

Methods And Results: A total of 406 patients enrolled at 35 centers in Italy were followed up prospectively for 2 years.

Cardiac resynchronization therapy in patients undergoing open-chest cardiac surgery.

Purpose: Few data are available on the effects of cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) in candidates for cardiac surgery and affected by severe heart failure (HF). The aim of our analysis is to evaluate the percentage of patients who maintain indication for CRT after surgery and the efficacy of CRT in those patients subsequently implanted.

Methods: We enrolled 124 HF patients with indication both to heart surgery and to CRT.

Sudden death due to atrial fibrillation in hypertrophic cardiomyopathy: a predictable event in a young patient.

This case refers to a 39-year-old woman with hypertrophic cardiomyopathy (HCM) and family history of sudden death (SD). In 1985, high rate atrial stimulation induced VF. In 1996 an ICD was implanted and she remained without arrhythmic events until November 2000 when the device reported one episode of atrial fibrillation degenerating into VF and terminated by the ICD.