Other Important Trials from the AHA Meeting

A bunch of important "negatives" were found at the recent American Heart Association meeting:

RethinQ - Do patients with narrow-complex QRS complexes and Class III-IV CHF who are eligible for defibrillator implantation benefit from cardiac resynchronization therapy in regards to exercise capacity? In a word: No. (Published today).

MASCOT - Management of Atrial Fibrillation Suppression in AF-HF COmorbidity Therapy trial - Does atrial overdrive pacing in patients with heart failure reduce one-year development of permanent atrial fibrillation? Answer: No (but only 3.3% of patients in each arm developed atrial fibrillation during the trial, suggesting it was severely underpowered.)

AF-CHF trial - Is a rate control or rhythm control strategy (with anticoagulation) superior to mortality in patients with heart failure? Answer: There was no difference in the primary endpoint of cardiovascular death between the groups or the secondary endpoints of total mortality, stroke, or worsening heart failure.

Oh, and one more: reviewed in abstract form: women had a higher complication rate with ICD implants than did men. The takeaway? Smaller size (in general) means higher risk of ICD implantation.

-Wes

Reference: Cardiosource.com