Skip Navigation

Europace 2009 11(Supplement 5):v82-v86; doi:10.1093/europace/eup273
This Article
Right arrow Full Text Freely available
Right arrow FREE Full Text (PDF) Freely available
Right arrow Alert me when this article is cited
Right arrow Alert me if a correction is posted
Services
Right arrow Email this article to a friend
Right arrow Similar articles in this journal
Right arrow Similar articles in PubMed
Right arrow Alert me to new issues of the journal
Right arrow Add to My Personal Archive
Right arrow Download to citation manager
Right arrow Disclaimer
Google Scholar
Right arrow Articles by Gasparini, M.
Right arrow Articles by Cappelleri, A.
PubMed
Right arrow PubMed Citation
Right arrow Articles by Gasparini, M.
Right arrow Articles by Cappelleri, A.
Social Bookmarking
Add to CiteULike   Add to Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us  
What's this?

Published on behalf of the European Society of Cardiology. All rights reserved. © The Author 2009. For permissions please email: journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.
The online version of this article has been published under an open access model. Users are entitled to use, reproduce, disseminate, or display the open access version of this article for non-commercial purposes provided that the original authorship is properly and fully attributed; the Journal, Learned Society and Oxford University Press are attributed as the original place of publication with correct citation details given; if an article is subsequently reproduced or disseminated not in its entirety but only in part or as a derivative work this must be clearly indicated. For commercial re-use, please contact journals.permissions@oxfordjournals.org.

This article appears in the following Europace issue: Spotlight Issue: Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy [View the issue table of contents]

Cardiac resynchronization therapy in heart failure patients with atrial fibrillation

Maurizio Gasparini1,*, François Regoli2, Paola Galimberti1, Carlo Ceriotti1 and Alessio Cappelleri1

1 IRCCS Istituto Clinico Humanitas, Via Manzoni 56, Rozzano/Milano, Italy; 2 Division of Cardiology, Cardiocentro Ticino, Lugano, Switzerland

Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) is an important device-based, non-pharmacological approach that has shown, in large randomized trials, to improve left ventricular (LV) function and reduce both morbidity and mortality rates in selected patients affected by advanced heart failure (HF): New York Heart Association (NYHA) functional class III–IV, reduced LV systolic function with an ejection fraction (EF) ≤35%, QRS duration ≥120 ms, on optimal medical therapy, and who were in sinus rhythm. For the first time, the latest ESC and AHA/ACC/HRS Guidelines have considered atrial fibrillation (AF) patients, who constitute an important subgroup of HF patients, as eligible to receive CRT. Nevertheless, these Guidelines did not include a strategy for defining differentiated approaches according to AF duration or burden. In this review, the authors explain in which way AF may interfere with adequate CRT delivery, how to manage different AF burden, and finally present a brief overview on the effects of CRT in AF patients.

Key Words: Atrial fibrillation, Heart failure, Resynchronization, Defibrillators, Ablation

* Corresponding author. Tel: +39 02 8224 4622, Fax: +39 02 8224 4693, Email: maurizio.gasparini{at}humanitas.it


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us    What's this?




Disclaimer: Please note that abstracts for content published before 1996 were created through digital scanning and may therefore not exactly replicate the text of the original print issues. All efforts have been made to ensure accuracy, but the Publisher will not be held responsible for any remaining inaccuracies. If you require any further clarification, please contact our Customer Services Department.