• Anne-Christine Ruwald, Grzegorz Pietrasik, Ilan Goldenberg, Valentina Kutyifa, James P Daubert, Martin H Ruwald, Christian Jons, Scott McNitt, Paul Wang, Wojciech Zareba, and Arthur J Moss.
• University of Rochester Medical Center, Heart Research Follow-Up Program, Rochester, New York; Department of Cardiology, Gentofte University Hospital, Hellerup, Denmark. Electronic address: anne.ruwald@heart.rochester.edu.
• J. Am. Coll. Cardiol. 2014 Apr 1;63(12):1190-7.

ObjectivesThis study aimed to investigate the effect of both history of intermittent atrial tachyarrhythmias (IAT) and in-trial IAT on the risk of heart failure (HF) or death comparing cardiac resynchronization therapy with defibrillator (CRT-D) to implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) treatment in mildly symptomatic HF patients with left bundle branch block (LBBB).BackgroundLimited data exist regarding the benefit of CRT-D in patients with IAT.MethodsThe benefit of CRT-D in reducing the risk of HF/death was evaluated using multivariate Cox models incorporating the presence of, respectively, a history of IAT at baseline and time-dependent development of in-trial IAT during follow-up in 1,264 patients with LBBB enrolled in the MADIT-CRT (Multicenter Automatic Defibrillator Implantation Trial With Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy) study.ResultsThe overall beneficial effect of CRT-D versus ICD on the risk of HF/death was not significantly different between LBBB patients with or without history of IAT (HR: 0.50, p = 0.028, and HR: 0.46, p < 0.001, respectively; p for interaction = 0.79). Among patients who had in-trial IAT, CRT-D was associated with a significant 57% reduction in the risk of HF/death compared with ICD-only therapy (HR: 0.43, p = 0.047), similar to the effect of the device among patients who did not have IAT (HR: 0.47, p < 0.001; p for interaction = 0.85). The percentage of patients with biventricular pacing ≥92% was similar in both groups (p = 0.43). Consistent results were shown for the benefit of CRT-D among patients who had in-trial atrial fibrillation/flutter (HR: 0.30, p = 0.027; p for interaction = 0.41).ConclusionsIn the MADIT-CRT study, the clinical benefit of CRT-D in LBBB patients was not attenuated by prior history of IAT or by the development of in-trial atrial tachyarrhythmias. (MADIT-CRT: Multicenter Automatic Defibrillator Implantation Trial With Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy; NCT00180271).Copyright © 2014 American College of Cardiology Foundation. Published by Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

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