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Research Highlights
New Therapy Found To Prevent Heart Failure In Many Patients
ScienceDaily (June 24, 2009) — A
landmark study has successfully demonstrated a 29 percent reduction
in heart failure or death in patients with heart disease who
received an implanted cardiac resynchronization therapy device with
defibrillator (CRT-D) versus patients who received only an implanted
cardiac defibrillator (ICD-only).
MADIT-CRT (Multicenter Automatic Defibrillator Implantation Trial
with Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy) is a clinical trial that
enrolled more than 1,800 patients in the United States, Canada and
Europe and followed the patients for up to 4½ years. The results of
the trial were released today by the University of Rochester Medical
Center and Boston Scientific, the study's sponsor. The MADIT-CRT
Executive Committee stopped the trial on June 22, 2009, when the
trial achieved its primary end point – significant reduction in
heart failure or death with CRT-D versus ICD-only. Cardiologist
Arthur Moss, M.D., professor of Medicine at the University of
Rochester Medical Center, led the MADIT-CRT trial.
A prior study (MADIT-II) by Moss and associates in 2002 showed the
ICD was effective in reducing mortality. The current MADIT-CRT study
sought to determine if CRT-D could reduce the risk of mortality and
heart failure, which affects 5.7 million Americans, and the results
are very positive.
Patients with heart disease have a risk of arrhythmias and heart
failure. The new generation of cardiac resynchronization therapy
defibrillators (CRT-Ds) was designed to stop dangerous,
life-threatening heart rhythms and improve the heart's contraction,
thereby enabling the device to improve survival and prevent heart
failure.
CRT-D's are approved for use in patients with severe heart failure
(New York Heart Association class III/IV), where they have been
shown to reduce heart failure symptoms. The findings from the
current study indicate that CRT-D therapy improves cardiac function
and prevents the development of heart failure in patients who have
not previously experienced heart failure.
"Now we can prevent sudden cardiac death and inhibit the development
of heart failure, thus improving survival and outcome in patients
with heart disease," Moss said. "There is a very large population of
patients with heart disease who will benefit from this combined
therapy."
University of Rochester Medical
Center (2009, June 24). New Therapy Found To Prevent Heart Failure
In Many Patients. ScienceDaily. Retrieved June 29, 2009, from
http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/06/090623143056.htm
Device helps weak hearts pump better -- so people can live better
By
Robyn Suriano: Sentinel Staff Writer
Just walking across the room was hard for Ella Kindergan last year,
when a weak heart kept her from doing almost everything. But a few
months ago, she trekked around Niagara Falls on vacation while an
experimental device in her chest pushed her heart to beat more
strongly.
The device belongs to a new class of implants for congestive heart
failure, a potentially crippling condition that affects millions of
people worldwide. Many stop responding to medication, grow
increasingly weak and end up house-bound. Doctors say a portion of
those patients -- up to about 650,000 Americans -- are candidates for
the devices...
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