Introduction: : Wide QRS complex in patients with heart failure (HF) is associated with higher all-cause mortality rate compared to narrow QRS. Our aim was to evaluate survival of HF patients according to QRS duration and device implanted.
Methods: We performed retrospective trial and enrolled 899 patients with advanced HF, optimal medical therapy and EF = 35%. Patients were assigned to two groups according to QRS duration. First group (n=536) with narrow QRS (?120 ms) received ICD, second group (n=363) with wide QRS (= 120 ms) received CRT-D. The primary outcome was time to death from any cause.
Results: During average follow-up of 827 days, the primary outcome occurred in 156 of 536 patients in the ICD group (29,1%) and 85 of 363 patients in the CRT-D group (23,4%). We found a tendency to better survival of CRT-D patients, but not statistically significant (p=0,24) (HR 0,85; 95% CI 0,65 to 1,11).
Conclusions: We did not find statistical significant difference in survival in both groups of patients. We assume good effect of CRT to eliminate adverse effect of dyssynchrony on survival.