The University of Zurich has announced an investigator initiated large-scale prospective randomized controlled clinical trial to assess the clinical impact of Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy (CRT) in heart failure patients.
The worldwide study, called "Echocardiography guided Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy (EchoCRT)", is the first prospective randomized clinical trial to evaluate the impact of cardiac resynchronization therapy in patients with advanced heart failure (NYHA Class III) and a narrow QRS complex who show mechanical dyssynchrony as assessed by echocardiography.
"It is established that CRT provides clinical benefit for heart failure patients with wide QRS," said Johannes Holzmeister, MD, University of Zurich, and co-principal investigator of the study. "Now it is imperative that we understand the effects of CRT in patients with narrow QRS complex (<120 ms) of whom more than 30% exhibit echocardiography evidence of dyssynchrony".
"As the majority of heart failure patients present with narrow QRS complex but still suffer from the clinical consequences of dyssynchrony, this trial could potentially expand therapeutic options for a patient population in need", said Frank Ruschitzka, MD, University of Zurich, and co-principal investigator of the study. "We expect the results of EchoCRT to pave the way to better outcomes."
More than 1000 patients with advanced heart failure (NYHA class III) will be randomized to CRT or no CRT and patients in both study arms will receive an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) backup to protect against sudden cardiac death. The primary objective of the study is to determine whether CRT will reduce the combined endpoint of all-cause mortality or hospitalization for cardiovascular events.