Cardiac resynchronisation therapy with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator appears to be cost-effective in patients with mild heart failure

Commentary on: Woo CY, Strandberg EJ, Schmiegelow MD, et al. Cost-effectiveness of adding cardiac resynchronization therapy to an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator among patients with mild heart failure. Ann Intern Med. 2015;163:417–26.[OpenUrl][1][CrossRef][2][PubMed][3] Cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT) resynchronises heart contractions using biventricular pacing and may be combined with an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD); this combination is referred to as a CRT-defibrillator (CRT-D). Current clinical guidelines recommend the use of a CRT-D in patients with moderate to severe heart failure, reduced systolic function and ventricular conduction delay.1 Recent clinical trials have shown that CRT also improves outcomes in patients with mild heart failure,2 ,3 but the cost-effectiveness in these patients is unclear. Woo et al … [1]: {openurl}?query=rft.jtitle%253DAnn%2BIntern%2BMed%26rft.volume%253D163%26rft.spage%253D417%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Adoi%252F10.7326%252FM14-1804%26rft_id%253Dinfo%253Apmid%252F26301323%26rft.genre%253Darticle%26rft_val_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Ajournal%26ctx_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ver%253DZ39.88-2004%26url_ctx_fmt%253Dinfo%253Aofi%252Ffmt%253Akev%253Amtx%253Actx [2]: /lookup/external-ref?access_num=10.7326/M14-1804&link_type=DOI [3]: /lookup/external-ref?access_num=26301323&link_type=MED&atom=%2Febmed%2F21%2F3%2F88.atom