Cardiac Resynchronization Effective in Diabetics

Cardiac synchronization therapy (CRT) appears effective in end-stage heart failure patients regardless of the presence of Diabetes, Dutch researchers report in the July 1st issue of the American Journal of Cardiology.

Investigator Dr. Jeroen J. Bax told Reuters Health that CRT is a promising technique in patients with heart failure and many patients with Diabetes eventually develop heart failure. Nevertheless, he pointed out, "Since the pathophysiology of heart failure in Diabetes is different, the effect of CRT may also differ in these patients."

However, the current findings "clearly demonstrate a similar effect of CRT in heart failure patients with and without Diabetes. The effect of CRT was comparable in terms of clinical benefit and improvement in systolic left ventricular function."

Dr. Bax of Leiden University Medical Center and colleagues evaluated 32 heart failure patients with Diabetes and 62 without Diabetes both before and after device implantation.

In total, 72 (74%) patients were deemed to be responders on the basis of an improvement of at least 1 in New York Heart Association Class at 6 months. There was no significant difference in the proportion of diabetic (63%) and non-diabetic patients (80%) in this group.

There also were no differences in a variety of other parameters, and during a mean follow-up of about 16 months, 7 diabetic patients (22%) died compared with 6 non-diabetic patients (9%).

Dr. Bax concluded, "long-term survival was slightly better in non-diabetics, but the difference did not reach statistical significance."

Am J Cardiol 2005;96:108-111.