Debate: Do all patients with heart failure require implantable defibrillators to prevent sudden death?

Description

Sudden death is a major cause of mortality in patients with ventricular dysfunction. The highest risk occurs among patients with less severe functional impairment. Current methods of risk stratification are inadequate, and a rational therapy for prevention of sudden death is not available. The implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) has proven to be more effective than drugs in reducing sudden-death risk in some subsets of patients. Empiric ICD therapy, targeting the general population with mild to moderate heart failure, will maximize the impact of such a strategy to prevent sudden death and improve long-term survival.

Resources

Name Format Description Link
21 Visit the original government dataset for complete information, documentation, and data access. https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC59609/

Tags

  • implantable-defibrillators
  • nih
  • sudden-cardiac-death
  • ventricular-dysfunction
  • heart-failure

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