University of Zurich announces worldwide clinical trial of Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy

Heart Failure :: University of Zurich announces worldwide clinical trial of Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy

The University of Zurich announces today an investigator initiated large-scale prospective randomized controlled clinical trial to assess the clinical impact of Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy (CRT) in heart failure patients.

The worldwide study, called "Echocardiography guided Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy (EchoCRT)", is the first prospective randomized clinical trial to evaluate the impact of cardiac resynchronization therapy in patients with advanced heart failure (NYHA Class III) and a narrow QRS complex who show mechanical dyssynchrony as assessed by echocardiography.

"It is established that CRT provides clinical benefit for heart failure patients with wide QRS," said Johannes Holzmeister, MD, University of Zurich, and co-principal investigator of the study. "Now it is imperative that we understand the effects of CRT in patients with narrow QRS complex (