The only subgroup that showed a differential effect was in women, who had a significantly better response to either the device-selected AV delay or an echo-guided delay compared with the fixed, 120-msec delay. In men, the three approaches had identical effects. The implications of this finding for selecting a CRT delay in women will need further study, Dr. Ellenbogen said. He also stressed the need to compare the efficacy of the three delay-setting approaches in the roughly 25% of patients who don't initially respond to their CRT device.
Concurrently with Dr. Ellenbogen's report at the meeting, the results were published online (Circulation 2010 Nov. 15 [doi:10.1161/circulationaha.110.992552]).