Cardiac Defibrillator Implants Decreases Heart Failure Risk Among Women

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A new study published in the journal Circulation: Heart Failure suggests that the use of primary prevention implantable cardiac defibrillators (ICDs) increases one's survival rates and decreases the risk of death among men and women diagnosed with heart failure.

According to Cardiovascular Disease News, ICDs are small devices that are to be placed beneath the skin of the chest. This device automatically delivers electric shocks to restore normal heart function when it senses an abnormal heart activity.

Previous clinical trials revealed that keeping ICDs increases a patients' survival outcome from heart failure. However, those studies only involved a limited number of female samples, so the results were inconclusive to women.

The new research aimed to answer this concern. It also evaluated the survival rates between women with and without preventive ICDs through examination of clinical data.

In the new study, the team examined the data from 264 hospitals in the United States that were included in the "Get With The Guidelines for Heart Failure" registry. They compared it to the survival scores of patients with heart failures with preventive or prescribed ICDs and patients without ICDs. The study involved 430 women and 859 men.

After the analysis, the team learned that, among the women sample, 40.2 percent with ICDs and 48.7 percent without the device died after three years. Among men, 42.9 percent with ICDS and 52.9 percent without ICDs died after the same period.

The authors conclude that the use of ICDs reduces the risk of death by 30 percent among male and female patients with heart failure.

"Despite current guidelines recommending that health practitioners consider adding these devices to standard heart failure treatments in both women and men, women with heart failure have been less likely to receive defibrillators. These new data reinforce the existing gender-neutral guidelines," said Emily Zeitler, M.D., lead author of the study per EurekAlert.

Since defibrillators are proven effective in increasing a patient's chances of survival, Zeitler is encouraging individuals with heart failure to check with their doctor if this device will be helpful to them.

"Currently, many eligible patients with heart failure are not referred to physicians who can implant the devices. If you have heart failure, ask your doctor whether you might benefit from an ICD in addition to your other therapy," Zeitler said.

The patients in the study were carefully matched in age, severity of illness and treatments used. However, since the value of ICDs was already established, a trial that randomly assigns a group of patients with defibrillators and another without the device would be ethically difficult to pursue.