Direct left atrial pressure monitoring in severe heart failure: long-term sensor performance

How to improve outcomes: should we put more emphasis on programming and medical care and less on patient selection?

Many factors contribute to the pathophysiology and progression of heart failure (HF), offering the potential for many synergistic therapeutic approaches to its management. For patients, who have systolic HF, prolonged QRS and receiving guideline-indicated pharmacological therapy, cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) may provide additional benefits in terms of symptom improvement and mortality reduction. Nevertheless, in many patients, moderate or severe symptoms may persist or recur after CRT implantation due to either the severity or progression of the underlying disease, the presence of important co-morbidities or suboptimal device programming. Identifying and, where possible, treating the reasons for persistent or recurrent symptoms in patients who have received CRT is an important aspect of patient care. The present review summarizes the available evidence on this topic.

Device therapy in advanced heart failure: what to put in and what to turn off: remote telemonitoring and implantable hemodynamic devices for advanced heart failure monitoring in the ambulatory setting and the evolving role of cardiac resynchronization therapy

Despite evidence based medical and pharmacologic advances the management of heart failure remains challenging, especially in the ambulatory setting. There is an urgent need to develop strategies to reduce hospitalizations and re-admission rates for heart failure in general. This focused review illustrates the potential role for remote telemonitoring and implantable hemodynamic devices to address this significant issue. We also explore the growth of cardiac resynchronization therapy and how it has evolved into another tool in our armamentarium for hemodynamic monitoring.