ICDs Can Save Many Lives

A new landmark study has shown that the use of an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) in patients with heart failure can reduce deaths by 23%. The results were reported in the January 20, 2005, issue of The New England Journal of Medicine.

The study involved 2,521 patients in 150 medical centers in Canada, New Zealand, and the United States with moderate heart failure and poor heart-pumping function who had not experienced sudden cardiac arrest (SCA). An ICD shocks the heart out of a rapid, chaotic heart rhythm that otherwise can lead to death within minutes. The study compared the benefits of ICDs with those of amiodarone, a commonly used heart medication.

The study was sponsored by the U.S. National Institutes of Health (Bethesda, MD, USA), with funding and therapy donations from Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and Medtronic, Inc. After the study was finished, Medtronic, a developer and marketer of ICDs, offered free ICDs to all interested participants who had been randomized to a non-ICD study arm. Implantable defibrillators have been approved for use since the late 1980s, but primarily for the 5% of patients who had already survived an SCA episode.

"This is the first time we have concrete evidence that many people with heart failure will die from sudden cardiac arrest if they don't have an implanted defibrillator,” said Richard Luceri, M.D., of Florida Arrhythmia Consultants/Holy Cross Hospital (Fort Lauderdale, FL, USA). "People with heart failure can be evaluated with a simple test called an echocardiogram to determine if they are at risk for sudden cardiac arrest.”




Related Links:
U.S. National Institutes of Health