Benefits, Unresolved Questions, and Technical Issues of Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy for Heart Failure

Delayed Enhancement Magnetic Resonance Imaging Predicts Response to Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy in Patients With Intraventricular Dyssynchrony

“…Cardiac resynchronization therapy aims to restore mechanical synchrony through simultaneous stimulation and subsequent coordinated contraction of dyssynchronous ventricular walls (23). Previous studies have shown that up to 30% of carefully selected patients do not derive benefit from this therapy (10).…”

Latency During Left Ventricular Pacing From the Lateral Cardiac Veins: A Cause of Ineffectual Biventricular Pacing

“…Cardiac resynchronization therapy has emerged as a highly effective treatment for selected patients with advanced cardiomyopathy and congestive heart failure. Simultaneous biventricular pacing is unsuccessful in approximately 30% of patients 1–6 . In some patients, lack of hemodynamic improvement may be due to regional variations in the electrical excitability and impulse propagation.…”

Sudden death prophylaxis in heart failure

“…However, several questions remain, perhaps the most compelling of which is the value of ICD back-up [29]. The impact of CRT alone versus CRT plus ICD (CRT-D) on long-term survival is not well established at this time.…”