Study regarding heart failure and ventricular pacing

• by Robin Branda
• 2008-04-01 01:04:48
• Complications
• 1964 views
• 2 comments

Hello All

The study I am refering to was done by cardiologists from the Robert Wood Johnson Medical School of New Brunswick
as follows:

Pacemaker study sees increase in heart failure rates
Filed under: Cardiology


Worrisome results, in a study of patients with implanted pacemakers, have been published by a group of cardiologists from the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick. The New Jersey Star-Ledger reports:

Patients with pacemakers are at significantly higher risk of dying of heart failure than those without the devices, according to a study released yesterday by New Jersey researchers.
The findings are based on a study by a team of cardiologists at the UMDNJ-Robert Wood Johnson Medical School in New Brunswick. They examined the medical records of more than 11,000 New Jersey patients who had pacemakers implanted between 1997 and 1999. The patients, none of whom had prior diagnoses of heart failure, were followed until 2001, with the median length of time 33 months.

What the cardiologists found is that deaths from heart failure -- which happens when the heart isn't pumping enough blood -- occurred in 81 patients with pacemakers, compared with 53 patients in the control group who didn't have pacemakers implanted. The study also found that heart failure-related hospitalizations were more common among the pacemaker group.

Their research appears in the March issue of the American Journal of Cardiology

Robin