ICD’s Prevent Sudden Death But Lead to Heart Failure
Data from the 2002 MADIT II study (Multicenter Automatic Defibrillator Implantation Trial II) have shown that implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) are excellent at preventing sudden death. Unfortunately, avoiding sudden death also means living to experience heart failure.
Patients who had ICDs implanted were:
- 39 percent more likely to have a first hospitalization for heart failure than those who received only medical therapy after a heart attack
- 58 percent more likely to be hospitalized for recurrent heart failure during an average 20-month follow up
And some clarification on the differences between sudden cardiac death, heart attack, and heart failure.
- Implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) are devices designed to correct arrhythmias, electrical malfunctions that throw the heart out of rhythm and cause many of the 330,000 sudden cardiac deaths each year in the United States. Most fatal arrhythmias in the aging are caused by scar tissue left behind by heart attacks that interferes with the heart’s electrical system.
- The connection has caused some to confuse sudden cardiac death with heart attack, which is brought when a blocked artery kills heart muscle.
- Many also confuse heart attack with heart failure, where heart becomes too insufficient to pump enough blood to meet the body’s needs.
Got that?
EurekAlert!, June 12, 2006
Technorati Tags: icd, implantable cardioverter defibrillators, heart failure, sudden death, arrhythmia, heart attack, heart, heart disease, cardiovascular disease, cvd
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POSTED IN: Heart Conditions, Hearty Research
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