The association between biventricular pacing and cardiac resynchronization therapy-defibrillator efficacy when compared with implantable cardioverter defibrillator on outcomes and reverse remodelling. European heart journal Ruwald, A. C., Kutyifa, V., Ruwald, M. H., Solomon, S., Daubert, J. P., Jons, C., Brenyo, A., McNitt, S., Do, D., Tanabe, K., Al-Ahmad, A., Wang, P., Moss, A. J., Zareba, W. 2015; 36 (7): 440-8

Abstract

Previous studies on biventricular (BIV) pacing and cardiac resynchronization therapy-defibrillator (CRT-D) efficacy have used arbitrarily chosen BIV pacing percentages, and no study has employed implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) patients as a control group.Using Kaplan-Meier plots, we estimated the threshold of BIV pacing percentage needed for CRT-D to be superior to ICD on the end-point of heart failure (HF) or death in 1219 left bundle branch block (LBBB) patients in the MADIT-CRT trial. Patients were censored at the time of crossover. In multivariable Cox analyses, no difference was seen in the risk of HF/death between ICD and CRT-D patients with BIV pacing =90% [HR = 0.78 (0.47-1.30), P = 0.344], and with increasing BIV pacing the risk of HF/death was decreased [CRT-D BIV 91-96% vs. ICD: HR = 0.63 (0.42-0.94), P = 0.024 and CRT-D BIV =97% vs. ICD: HR = 0.32 (0.23-0.44), P < 0.001]. The risk of death alone was reduced by 52% in CRT-D patients with BIV =97% (HR = 0.48, P < 0.016), when compared with ICD patients. Within the CRT-D group, for every 1 percentage point increase in BIV pacing, the risk of HF/death and death alone significantly decreased by 6 and 10%, respectively. Increasing BIV pacing percentage was associated with significant reductions in left ventricular volume.In patients with LBBB, who were in sinus rhythm at enrolment, BIV pacing exceeding 90% was associated with a benefit of CRT-D in HF/death when compared with ICD patients. Furthermore, BIV pacing =97% was associated with an even further reduction in HF/death, a significant 52% reduction in death alone, and increased reverse remodelling. Clinical trials.gov identifier: NCT00180271.

View details for DOI 10.1093/eurheartj/ehu294

View details for PubMedID 25112662