Adding Defibrillation Therapy to Cardiac Resynchronization on the Basis of the Myocardial Substrate.

BACKGROUND

Patients with nonischemic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) may be at lower risk for ventricular arrhythmias compared with those with ischemic cardiomyopathy (ICM). In addition, DCM has been identified as a predictor of positive response to cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT).

OBJECTIVES

The aim of this study was to investigate the impact of an additional implantable cardioverter-defibrillator over CRT, according to underlying heart disease, in a large study group of primary prevention patients with heart failure.

METHODS

This was an observational, multicenter, European cohort study of 5,307 consecutive patients with DCM or ICM, no history of sustained ventricular arrhythmias, who underwent CRT implantation with (n = 4,037) or without (n = 1,270) a defibrillator. Propensity-score and cause-of-death analyses were used to compare outcomes.

RESULTS

After a mean follow-up period of 41.4 ± 29.0 months, patients with ICM had better survival when receiving CRT with a defibrillator compared with those who received CRT without a defibrillator (hazard ratio for mortality adjusted on propensity score and all mortality predictors: 0.76; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.62 to 0.92; p = 0.005), whereas in patients with DCM, no such difference was observed (hazard ratio: 0.92; 95% CI: 0.73 to 1.16; p = 0.49). Compared with recipients of defibrillators, the excess mortality in patients who did not receive defibrillators was related to sudden cardiac death in 8.0% among those with ICM but in only 0.4% of those with DCM.

CONCLUSIONS

Among patients with heart failure with indications for CRT, those with DCM may not benefit from additional primary prevention implantable cardioverter-defibrillator therapy, as opposed to those with ICM.