Study population
This study has been approved by the Ethics Committee of Nanjing Drum
Tower Hospital have therefore been performed in accordance with the
Declaration of Helsinki and its later amendments. We enrolled 82
patients with ICM or DCM who received ICD implantation for primary
prevention between January 2010 and August 2018 admitted in the
Department of Cardiology of Nanjing Drum Towel Hospital. Among them, 26
were ICM and 56 were DCM. A total of 78 patients were followed up,
including 25 patients with ICM and 53 patients with DCM. Clinical
characteristics, medications, 24-h Holter electrocardiograms (ECGs) were
recorded on admission.
Inclusion criteria
ICM patients: 1) Patients with chronic congestive heart failure;
2) Patients with definite myocardial infarction and who have received
percutaneous coronary intervention (PCI) or surgical coronary artery
bypass grafting (CABG); 3) Electrocardiogram, echocardiography or
cardiac magnetic resonance show large-scale necrosis of myocardium or
local dyskinesia of ventricular wall; 4) After 3 months of treatment
with standard anti-heart failure drugs, echocardiography confirmed left
ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) ≤35%; 5) NYHA class II-III or IV
patients considering CRT-D or NYHA class IV patients waiting for heart
transplantation.[7]
DCM patients: 1) Patients with chronic congestive heart
failure; 2) After 3 months of treatment with standard anti-heart failure
drugs, echocardiography confirmed LVEF ≤35%, the whole heart is
enlarged, and LVEDD (left ventricular end diastolic diameter)
> 55mm in male or > 50mm in female, or the
wall motion is weakened; 3) Exclude heart enlargement and EF reduction
caused by other diseases (such as hypertrophic cardiomyopathy, alcoholic
cardiomyopathy, valvular disease, cardiomyopathy caused by
hyperthyroidism, etc.); 4) NYHA class II-III or IV patients considering
CRT-D or NYHA class IV patients waiting for heart
transplantation.[8]
Exclusion criteria
1) Suffering from heart disease other than ICM and DCM which leads to
chronic heart failure; 2) Patients had acute left heart failure; 3) The
life expectancy of the patient is less than 1 year; 4) Patient
experienced cardiovascular events such as SCD, ventricular fibrillation,
cardiopulmonary resuscitation or continuous ventricular tachycardia.