Pacemaker therapy halves heart fail...( n progress to heart failure or other tr...)

Bradley, Powe and colleagues searched medical databases for randomized clinical trials comparing pacemaker therapy (called "cardiac resynchronization") versus no therapy in patients with dysfunction of the left ventricle, the heart's main pumping chamber. Four studies of 1,634 patients were selected for analysis. The majority of patients were men ages 63 to 66 with moderate to severe heart failure.

In the studies, patients were divided into two groups; some received cardiac resynchronization while others did not. In cardiac resynchronization, a pacemaker lead positioned in a coronary vein by the left ventricle enhances cardiac function, and improves exercise capacity and quality of life among patients. In the Johns Hopkins study, cardiac resynchronization reduced death from progressive heart failure by 51 percent. The death rate was 1.7 percent for those who got resynchronization and 3.5 percent for those who did not. The pacemaker therapy also reduced hospitalizations by 29 percent and showed a trend toward reducing death of any cause.

Bradley notes the death rates overall were low, as the trials only followed patients for three to six months.

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Contact: John Lazarou
jlazaro1@jhmi.edu
410-502-8902
Johns Hopkins Medical Institutions
11-Feb-2003