Risk of Ventricular Arrhythmias After Left Ventricular Function Improvement in Patients With Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy When Enough Is Not Enough

摘要

Sudden cardiac death (SCD) remains a devastating event in patients with heart failure. Great advances have been achieved in the prevention of SCD since the introduction of cardiac implantable electronic devices. Today, implantation of an implantable cardiac defibrillator (ICD) for the primary prevention of SCD carries a class I recommendation according to the current American Heart Association/American College of Cardiology/Heart Rhythm Society and European Society of Cardiology guidelines in patients with ischemic (ICM) and noni-schemic cardiomyopathy (NICM) and severe left ventricular (LV) dysfunction. These patients rely on left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) below 30% to 35% and New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class II to III.