SCD-HeFT 2005
SCD-HeFT 2005
The Sudden Cardiac Death in Heart Failure Trial (SCD-HeFT) trial was published in NEJM in 2005 [1]. SCD-HeFT randomized 2521 patients into three groups. They were in New York Association (NYHA) class II or III congestive heart failure (CHF) and had left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) ≤35%. It was a comparison between amiodarone or an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) for congestive heart failure, with placebo control. The patients were divided into three groups:
Conventional therapy for CHF plus placebo (847 patients)
Conventional therapy plus amiodarone (845 patients)
Conventional therapy plus a conservatively programmed, shock-only, single-lead ICD (829 patients)
Amiodarone and placebo were given in a double blind pattern. Primary endpoint of the study was all cause mortality. Median follow of period of SCD-HeFT was forty five and a half months. Mortality rate was twenty nine percent in the placebo group and twenty eight percent in the amiodarone group. Those on ICD had a mortality rate of twenty two percent.
Compared with placebo, amiodarone had a similar death rate with hazard ratio on 1.06 (P=0.53) which was not statistically significant. Death rate was 23 percent lower in the ICD group with a hazard ratio of 0.77 (P=0.007). Absolute reduction in mortality was 7.2% in the ICD group after five years of follow up.
Though amiodarone was not found to be superior to placebo in the SCD-HeFT, this was better than the results of the Cardiac A...
Source: Cardiophile MD - Category: Cardiology Authors: Prof. Dr. Johnson Francis Tags: ECG / Electrophysiology Source Type: blogs
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