076 Long term effects of cardiac resynchronization therapy in chronic heart failure patients

Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) is an effective treatment of advanced heart failure (HF). Recent studies showed a positive effect of CRT on HF symptoms, left ventricular ejection function (EF,%), reduction of hospitalizations and survival. However, most studies evaluated clinical and echocardiographic response to CRT after a limited follow-up (ranging from 6 to 12 months). Thus we evaluated clinical and functional response to CRT in HF patients (pts) after a longer follow-up period (up to 3 years, ys). We enrolled 75 HF outpts with CRT indication [30% females, mean age 67.9±12.6 ys, mean NYHA class 2.8±0.7, mean EF 25.7±8.1, HF aetiology: 44% coronary artery disease (CAD), 43% dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM), 6% hypertensive cardiomyopathy (HT), 7% valvular disease (V)]. All were evaluated by means of ECG, echocardiography, NYHA functional class before CRT device implant and re-evaluated after 1 (95% of pts), 2 (80% of pts), and 3 (45% of pts) ys. After 1 y, NYHA significantly improved (from 2.8±0.7 to 2.3±0.6, p