14th International Congress
THE "NEW FRONTIERS"
OF ARRHYTHMIAS 2000

Jan. 29 - Feb. 5, 2000
Marilleva, Trento, Italy

RT-56

Application of non-excitatory electrical current to improve cardiac contractility: a new pacing approach in congestive heart failure

Carlo Pappone, Salvatore Rosanio, Gabriele Vicedomini, Carlo Meloni, Cosimo Dicandia, Adriano Salvati, Vincenzo Santinelli, Patrizio Mazzone, Giuseppe Oreto, Sergio Chierchia.
Division of Cardiology, Hospital S.Raffaele, Milan, Italy

Background

Cardiac pacing has been shown to improve hemodynamics in patients with congestive heart failure (CHF) and major intraventricular conduction block, whereas it yields limited functional benefit in patients without wide QRS complex. In the present study, we evaluated whether left ventricular (LV) systolic function in patients with normal or wide QRS can be augmented using non-excitatory electrical stimuli (ES) generated by a specifically designed, externally powered, user-programmable investigational device (SCEPTRE, Impulse Dynamics).

Key Words