CRT Past, Present, and Future Directions: Toward Intelligent Responders Selection and Optimizing Pacing Modalities

Abstract

Congestive heart failure (CHF) is a serious health problem affecting all nations of world. Its impact is increasing with increasing individual age. Ventricular dyssynchrony is well known to contribute to pathophysiological deterioration in more than one-third of CHF subjects. The therapeutic choices of CHF witnessed long decades of stagnant periods and a relative paucity of effective treatment. The discovery of the electrical therapy that is capable of reversing ventricular dyssynchrony, in the form of cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT), is a true revolution in the timeline of CHF management. Despite the early enthusiasm associated with CRT implantations started in 2001, we know from the last two decades’ experience that non-responders constitute to nearly 40% of all CRT patients. This chapter is devoted to reviewing the past, present and future of CRT with special attention on better intelligent detection of the electrical substrate responsive to CRT as well as optimizing the choice of CRT subjects using the latest knowledge in electrocardiographic and state-of-art imagining technologies. Novel future directions are discussed with new scientific philosophies capable of optimizing CRT. Promising new implants techniques such as endocardial pacing of the left ventricle, His bundle pacing as well as His-optimized cardiac resynchronization therapy are discussed.