Cardiac resynchronization therapy with or without defibrillator: experience from a high-volume Belgian implantation centre.

Objective: Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) is an important treatment modality for heart failure with reduced ejection fraction and ventricular conduction delay. Considering limited health care budgets in an aging population, adding a defibrillator function to CRT remains a matter of debate. Our aim was to describe the experience of a high-volume Belgian implantation centre with CRT with/without defibrillator (CRT-D/P).

Comorbidity significantly affects clinical outcome after cardiac resynchronization therapy regardless of ventricular remodeling.

Background: The influence of comorbid conditions on ventricular remodeling, functional status, and clinical outcome after cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) is insufficiently elucidated.

Methods And Results: The influence of different comorbid conditions on left ventricular remodeling, improvement in New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class, hospitalizations for heart failure, and all-cause mortality after CRT implantation was analyzed in 172 consecutive patients (mean age 71 ± 9 y), implanted from October 2008 to April 2011 in a single tertiary care hospital. During mean follow-up of 18 ± 9 months, 21 patients died and 57 were admitted for heart failure.

Response to cardiac resynchronization therapy in elderly patients (≥70 years) and octogenarians.

Aims: Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) leads to reverse ventricular remodelling, improved functional capacity, and better clinical outcome in patients with advanced chronic heart failure, reduced ejection fraction, and evidence of ventricular conduction delay, who are under optimal medical therapy. This study investigated whether these benefits can be extrapolated to older patients, typically not included in randomized clinical trials.

Methods And Results: Consecutive patients who received a CRT device between October 2008 and June 2011, including optimization afterwards in a dedicated clinic, were stratified into 3 pre-specified groups, according to age: <70 years (n = 76); 70-79 years (n = 95); and ≥80 years (n = 49).

Importance of adjunctive heart failure optimization immediately after implantation to improve long-term outcomes with cardiac resynchronization therapy.

Despite improvement in morbidity and mortality with cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT), disease progression continues to affect a subset of patients and there is limited effort to identify contributing factors. Our objective was to investigate if a protocol-driven approach incorporated in a management strategy of heart failure immediately after implantation would provide incremental benefits beyond usual care after implantation. We reviewed 114 consecutive patients with CRT implanted from 2005 through 2009 who received usual care after implantation or underwent protocol-driven CRT care after implantation.