Published 28 April 2009, doi:10.1136/bmj.b1265
Cite this as: BMJ 2009;338:b1265

Clinical Review

Cardiac resynchronisation therapy for chronic heart failure and conduction delay

Richard M Cubbon, lecturer in cardiology1, Klaus K A Witte, senior lecturer in cardiology and honorary consultant cardiologist1

1 Division of Cardiovascular and Diabetes Research, University of Leeds, Leeds LS2 9JT

Correspondence to: K K A Witte klauswitte@hotmail.com

The first 150 words of the full text of this article appear below.


Consider cardiac resynchronisation therapy for any patient with chronic heart failure if they have, or have recently had, moderate or severe symptoms of heart failure; if their left ventricular ejection fraction is ≤35%; and if their QRS duration is ≥150 ms or 120-149 ms with dyssynchrony measured on echocardiography
Cardiac resynchronisation therapy can improve symptoms and prognosis
Advanced age does not reduce the effectiveness of the therapy
All healthcare professionals involved in the management of heart failure need to be aware of the potential benefits of cardiac resynchronisation therapy and who to refer
Evaluation of the QRS duration and heart rhythm on the electrocardiogram should be part of the standard management of any patient with heart failure and repeated at least yearly


Chronic heart failure is common, affecting about 900 000 people in the United Kingdom and with a prevalence of about 6-10% in people aged over 65 years1; . . . [Full text of this article]


Add to CiteULike CiteULike   Add to Complore Complore   Add to Connotea Connotea   Add to Del.icio.us Del.icio.us   Add to Digg Digg   Add to Reddit Reddit   Add to StumbleUpon StumbleUpon   Add to Technorati Technorati    What's this?

Rapid Responses:

Read all Rapid Responses

QRS width as a marker of cardiac dyssynchrony.
Yanish Purmah, et al.
bmj.com, 4 May 2009 [Full text]
Access jobs at BMJ Careers
Whats new online at Student BMJ