Mortality and Costs Associated with Wearable Cardioverter-defibrillators after Acute Myocardial Infarction: A Retrospective Cohort Analysis of Medicare Claims Data.

Ventricular arrhythmias are common in the early period after myocardial infarction (MI), with the highest risk occurring in the immediate postinfarct window. The wearable cardioverter-defibrillator (WCD) has been proven to have efficacy in treating sudden cardiac arrest in patients soon after MI. However, data concerning clinical and health economic outcomes of WCD usage among Medicare patients have not been evaluated.

Tachycardia detection performance of implantable loop recorders: results from a large 'real-life' patient cohort and patients with induced ventricular arrhythmias.

Aims: Implantable loop recorders (ILRs) are valuable for diagnosing arrhythmias. We evaluated tachycardia detection performance of the Medtronic Reveal(®) ILR with FullView™ Software.

Methods And Results: The rate of occurrence of tachycardia detection [supraventricular tachycardia, ventricular tachycardia (VT), and ventricular fibrillation (VF)] and the percentage of appropriately detected tachycardias were determined from all 2190 ILR patients that transmitted to CareLink over a 4-month period (total follow-up = 135.

Subgroup analysis of a randomized controlled trial evaluating the safety and efficacy of cardiac contractility modulation in advanced heart failure.

Background: Cardiac contractility modulation (CCM) signals are nonexcitatory electrical signals delivered during the absolute refractory period intended to improve contraction. We previously tested the safety and efficacy of CCM in 428 NYHA functional class III/IV heart failure patients with EF ≤35% and narrow QRS randomized to optimal medical treatment (OMT) plus CCM (n = 215) versus OMT alone (n = 213) and found no significant effect on ventilatory anaerobic threshold (VAT), the study's primary end point. In the present analysis, we sought to identify if there was a subgroup of patients who showed a response to CCM.

A randomized controlled trial evaluating the safety and efficacy of cardiac contractility modulation in advanced heart failure.

Background: Cardiac contractility modulation (CCM) delivers nonexcitatory electrical signals to the heart during the absolute refractory period intended to improve contraction.

Methods: We tested CCM in 428 New York Heart Association class III or IV, narrow QRS heart failure patients with ejection fraction (EF) ≤ 35% randomized to optimal medical therapy (OMT) plus CCM (n = 215) versus OMT alone (n = 213). Efficacy was assessed by ventilatory anaerobic threshold (VAT), primary end point, peak Vo₂ (pVo₂), and Minnesota Living with Heart Failure Questionnaire (MLWFQ) at 6 months.