New therapy prevents heart failure
Tuesday, September 1, 2009 - 11:56
in Health & Medicine
Patients who had a cardiac resynchronization device combined with a defibrillator (CRT-D) implanted had a 34 percent reduction in their risk of death or heart failure when compared to patients receiving only an implanted cardiac defibrillator (ICD), according to a landmark study published online today in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented today at the European Society of Cardiology Congress (ESC) in Barcelona, Spain. The overall benefit observed from resynchronization therapy was driven by a 41 percent reduction in heart failure. Women who received CRT-D had an "astonishing" 63 percent reduction in their risk of heart failure.