ICDs Found of Most Benefit to Sickest Patients

A study of cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) has found that the devices save lives most often in the sickest patients. Conducted by researchers at the University of Rochester Medical Center (NY, USA), the study was published in the September 1, 2001, issue of the American Journal of Cardiology.

The research involved 196 patients with implanted ICDs at various medical centers who had previously suffered at least one heart attack. The patients were separated into high-risk and low-risk groups and then monitored for an average of two years. The results showed that the ICDs were of most benefit to the sickest patients. Previously, it was thought that most patients who die of heart disease suffer from a progressive failure of the organ, so that it simply tires and stops pumping. An ICD would not be a useful treatment in these cases. More often, however, patients die from an abrupt malfunction of the heart rhythm. In such patients, an ICD can deliver a powerful jolt within seconds to shock the heart back into a normal rhythm.

"The bottom line is that the sickest patients receive the most benefits from ICDs,” said Arthur J. Moss, lead author of the study and a professor of medicine at the University of Rochester. "The other side of the coin is that patients with chronic disease, who still have relatively good heart function, are not helped by defibrillators.”




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