Echocardiographic Response
A comparison of the echocardiographic changes following the CRT upgrade
between the 3 groups is shown in Figure 2 . A decrease in the
LVESV (ΔLVESV) and increase in the LVEF (ΔLVEF) was most often seen in
group 3. Also, the rate of an echocardiographic response rate was the
highest in group 3 and lowest in group 1 (group 1: 2 of 7 patients
[29%] vs. group 2: 5 of 10 patients [50%] vs. group 3: 21 of
27 patients [78%], p = 0.029).
Figure 3 shows the echocardiographic change between that before
and six months after the upgrade to CRT in each group. There was a
significant reduction in the ESV in group 3 (from 126 ± 34 mL to 91 ± 39
mL, p < 0.0001) but not in groups 1 and 2. There was a
significant improvement in the EF in groups 2 and 3 (from 26 ± 7% to 34
± 8%, p = 0.002 and from 26 ± 7% to 39 ± 9%, p < 0.0001,
respectively) but not in groups 1.