20 Aug Implantable Defibrillators Decrease Mortality in Heart Failure Patients

MedicalResearch.com Interview with:
Gregg C. Fonarow, MD, FACC, FAHA
Eliot Corday Professor of Cardiovascular Medicine and Science
Director, Ahmanson-UCLA Cardiomyopathy Center
Co-Chief of Clinical Cardiology, UCLA Division of Cardiology
Co-Director, UCLA Preventative Cardiology Program
David Geffen School of Medicine at UCLA
Los Angeles, CA, 90095-1679

Medical Research: What are the main findings of the study?

Dr. Fonarow: Drawing on data from the Registry to Improve the Use of Evidence-Based Heart Failure Therapies in the Outpatient Setting (IMPROVE HF), 15,177 heart failure patients were followed over two years to measure the benefits of implantable device therapy on survival in community practice settings. The study demonstrated that ICD device therapy reduced the likelihood of death during the two-year period by 36 percent, with no significant differences by race or ethnicity. The study also demonstrated a 45 percent reduction in mortality during the two-year period with CRT therapy, again without any significant differences device benefit by race or ethnicity.

Medical Research: Were any of the findings unexpected?

Dr. Fonarow: The magnitude of benefit associated with use of CRT and ICD therapy in real world clinical practice among this large and diverse group of heart failure patients, was impressive.

Medical Research: What should clinicians and patients take away from your report?

Dr. Fonarow: Implantable devices are proven to save the lives of heart failure patients and should be offered to all patients who qualify, without consideration of race or ethnicity, to ensure more equitable benefit from this life-prolonging therapy

Medical Research: What recommendations do you have for future research as a result of this study?

Dr. Fonarow: Despite the evidence that device therapies are beneficial, an estimated 40-60 percent of heart failure patients eligible for the treatment fail to receive it. Among heart failure patients deemed eligible for the therapy, minorities are less likely to receive it than whites – in part, because of the small representation of minority patients in the device studies. Futures studies should assess whether this evidence of similar benefit with device therapies translates into more equitable use of device therapy for heart failure.

 Citation:

Last Updated on August 20, 2014 by Marie Benz MD FAAD