Biventricular pacing in pacemaker dependency: one size does not fit all.

摘要

Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) has become standard therapy for heart failure patients with decreased left ventricular (LV) systolic function, with the indication extending recently to less symptomatic patients. Implantation rates in Europe have increased steadily with a clear difference between countries. Recent evidence suggests that CRT might also be useful in patients without heart failure who are pacemaker-dependent. It is, however, unclear if this can be translated into the whole population of pacemaker-dependent patients. In this issue of the European Journal of Heart Failure, Stockburger et al. describe the results of PREVENT-HF, a small randomized trial describing the outcome of biventricular stimulation in patients with atrioventricu-lar (AV) block and no overt heart failure, in which no benefit of biventricular stimulation was demonstrated