Debate: Do all patients with heart failure require automatic implantable defibrillators for the prevention of sudden death?

Content Provider	Semantic Scholar
Author	Goldstein, Sidney
Copyright Year	2000
Abstract	Recent clinical trials indicate that approximately two-thirds of patients in New York Heart Association (NYHA) class II and III, who comprise almost 90% of patients with heart failure, die suddenly. Patients in NYHA class IV usually die of progressive heart failure. Implantation of implantable cardioverters defibrillators (ICDs) in this population would represent a huge logistic problem and economic expense. Clinical trials have recently demonstrated that beta-blocker therapy with carvedilol, bisoprolol, and toprol XL decrease the sudden death rate by almost 50%, in addition to impacting significantly on death due to worsening heart failure. This medical approach is beneficial to all patients, and should be our major therapy. However, it is reasonable to attempt to identify that subpopulations of heart failure patients who could benefit from an ICD.
Starting Page	95
Ending Page	97
Page Count	3
File Format	PDF HTM / HTML
PubMed reference number	11714419
Volume Number	1
Journal	Current controlled trials in cardiovascular medicine
Alternate Webpage(s)	https://trialsjournal.biomedcentral.com/track/pdf/10.1186/cvm-1-2-095
Language	English
Access Restriction	Open
Subject Keyword	Adrenergic beta-Antagonists Bisoprolol Cessation of life Defibrillators Heart failure Implantable defibrillator Implants Patients Sudden death Toprol carvedilol
Content Type	Text
Resource Type	Article