Endocardial versus epicardial CRT upgrades
Research type
Research Study
Full title
A comparison of patients undergoing endocardial and epicardial cardiac resynchronisation therapy upgrades.
IRAS ID
278232
Contact name
Aldo Rinaldi
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
Guy's & St Thomas' Foundation NHS Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
2 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT) has been shown to improve outcomes and reduce death. CRT is normally delivered by placing an epicardial lead on the outside of the left ventricle (one of the four chambers of the heart). This helps to ensure both big chambers of the heart beat together to improve heart function. Despite careful patient selection, 30% of patients will fail to improve following CRT. Endocardial pacing (pacing inside the left ventricle itself) has a number of advantages over epicardial pacing such as a greater access to pacing locations. These advantages may result in more patients improving with endocardial CRT. However, it is currently unknown how patients undergoing upgrades from a simple pacemaker to epicardial CRT compare with those undergoing upgrades from a simple pacemaker to endocardial CRT. The purpose of this study was to compare epicardial CRT upgrades with endocardial CRT upgrades.
REC name
N/A
REC reference
N/A