Analysis of Cardiac Contraction Patterns

Heart failure is defined as a syndrome characterized by a remodeling in the cardiac muscle structure that diminishes the strength and synchrony of contractions, leading the subject to a functional capacity deterioration that progressively triggers fatal clinical outcomes. There are specific pharmacological therapies to reduce failure progression. However, once the symptoms have developed, it is necessary to combine different treatments to alleviate them and to improve the quality of life. The most advanced therapies in recent years utilize implantable electronic devices known as cardiac resynchronizers. Cardiac resynchronization therapy has proven to be highly beneficial to patients with severe heart failure, because it reduces the number of hospitalizations, increases exercise resistance, and improves left ventricle systolic function and patient’s survival. Nonetheless, 20–30% of patients do not respond to this therapy, thus requiring reliable techniques to predict the probability of a successful outcome in a case-by-case basis. This chapter analyzes several methods that have been proposed to achieve this goal.