CRT effective for diabetics too

In yet another achievement for the market leaders Medtronic Inc’s, a study has concluded that CRT is equally effective to heart patients with diabetes also.

CARE-HF (Cardiac Resynchronization in Heart Failure) data presented at the ESC (European Society of Cardiology) show that CRT (cardiac resynchronisation therapy) significantly reduced all-cause mortality, heart failure death and sudden cardiac death and is equally effective in patients with diabetes. Every year about two million people are diagnosed with heart dysfunction, in which the heart cannot meet the energy requirements of the body.

CRT, an implantable device, resynchronises the contractions of the heart's ventricles by sending electrical impulses that help it pump blood more efficiently. More than 200,000 patients with heart failure around the world have been fitted with a CRT device manufactured by either market leader Medtronic or one of its competitors.

"From previous CARE-HF data, we already knew that CRT improves survival in heart failure patients," said Uta C. Hoppe, MD, Department of Medicine III, University of Cologne, Germany. "With these new data, we now have proof that CRT is beneficial in heart failure patients with different co-morbidities, including those at risk of sudden cardiac death and patients with diabetes."

An analysis of a previous study on CRT showed that the use of CRT decreased the risk of death from heart failure by 45% and sudden cardiac death by 53%. A further analysis of the data found that patients with diabetes and heart failure seem to benefit from CRT as much as patients with heart failure who aren't diabetic.

CRT reduced the mortality rate in patients with diabetes by 39 percent; comparably, CRT reduced the mortality rate in patients without diabetes by 40 percent. Diabetes mellitus and heart failure generally coexist. Patients with diabetes have an up to five-fold increased risk of developing cardiovascular disease.

The trial, sponsored by U.S. medical devices company Medtronic, based in Minneapolis, studied 813 patients with heart failure, who were randomly assigned to medication therapy alone or with the addition of CRT.

This is another feather in cap of the Medtronics group, whose major recent success was the Deep Brain Simulation technique which is used effectively to combat the symptoms of Parkinson disease.