LBBB is associated with a smaller degree of LVEF improvement compared with other QRS morphologies, even with GDMT. Some patients with LBBB may benefit from CRT earlier than guidelines currently recommend.

Fourteen Sprague-Dawley rats were exposed to CO2 laser exhaust that had first passed through smoke-evacuator filters. Six rats breathed laser vapors that were filtered through commercially available, standard production model smoke-evacuator systems. These animals demonstrated pulmonary lesions identical to but qualitatively less severe than those observed in animals breathing unfiltered vapor. Six additional rats were protected by the interposition of a cartridge filter plus an ultra-low penetration air filter, which trapped 0.1 micron particles; the microscopic sections of the lungs of these experimental rats and two control rats were similar in appearance, i.e., no pathological changes were observed.

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With the emergence of cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) as a powerful tool to reverse left ventricular dysfunction in patients with left bundle branch block (LBBB), there is increasing awareness that LBBB-induced dyssynchrony may be a primary cause of heart failure with reduced ejection fraction (HFrEF). Current guidelines for implanting CRT require at least 3 months of guideline-directed medical therapy (GDMT) before device implantation in the hopes that medications will reverse cardiomyopathy and obviate the need for device therapy. However, no randomized controlled trial demonstrating efficacy of medications ever stratified outcomes by patients with conduction abnormalities. Consequently, CRT, not GDMT, may be a more effective first-line therapy for patients with LBBB and HFrEF. This review evaluates the evidence for LBBB-induced cardiomyopathy, examines the rationale for GDMT in this population, and presents the evidence for direct implantation of CRT. It is likely that many patients would benefit from earlier intervention with CRT, though about 25% of patients with LBBB and HFrEF may respond to GDMT.

In MADIT-II, prerenal azotemia was the only significant and independent risk factor for HF progression after a first event, and recurrent HF was the most powerful predictor of mortality. These findings stress the importance of identifying risk factors for HF progression among patients who receive an ICD for primary prevention.

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Background: Active esophageal cooling reduces the incidence of endoscopically identified severe esophageal lesions during radiofrequency (RF) catheter ablation of the left atrium for the treatment of atrial fibrillation. No atrioesophageal fistula (AEF) has been reported to date with active esophageal cooling, and only one pericardio-esophageal fistula has been reported; however, a formal analysis of the AEF rate with active esophageal cooling has not previously been performed. Methods: Atrial fibrillation ablation procedure volumes before and after adoption of active cooling using a dedicated esophageal cooling device (ensoETM, Attune Medical) were determined across 25 hospital systems with the highest total use of esophageal cooling during RF ablation. The number of AEFs occurring in equivalent time frames before and after adoption of cooling were then determined, and AEF rates were compared using generalized estimating equations robust to cluster correlation. Results: Throughout the 25 hospital systems, which included a total of 30 separate hospitals, 14,224 patients received active esophageal cooling during RF ablation, with the earliest adoption beginning in March 2019 and the most recent beginning in March 2022. In the time frames prior to adoption of active cooling, a total of 10,962 patients received primarily luminal esophageal temperature (LET) monitoring during their RF ablations. In this pre-adoption cohort a total of 16 AEFs occurred, for an AEF rate of 0.146%, in line with other published estimates of <0.1% to 0.25%. No AEFs were found in the cohort treated after adoption of active esophageal cooling, yielding an AEF rate of 0% (P<0.0001). Conclusion: Adoption of active esophageal cooling during RF ablation of the left atrium for the treatment of atrial fibrillation was associated with a significant reduction in AEF rate.