The Comparison of Medical Therapy, Pacing, and Defibrillation in Heart Failure (COMPANION) trial in perspective.
The Comparison of Medical Therapy, Pacing, and Defibrillation in Heart Failure (COMPANION) trial is one of several randomized trials that has demonstrated an improvement in morbidity and mortality with biventricular pacemakers and/or implantable defibrillators. Although the results of the COMPANION trial overlap with other trials investigating cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) and implantable cardioverter-defibrillators (ICDs), there are several unique aspects of the trial that warrant special attention. This review focuses on COMPANION in light of other CRT trials, and includes a discussion on the patient population enrolled, design challenges of the trial, the cost-effectiveness of CRT and CRT-D, and results of subanalyses using data collected during the trial.
Sauer
William H
WH
Division of Cardiology, University of Colorado at Denver and Health Sciences Center, Denver, CO, USA. william.sauer@uchsc.edu
Bristow
Michael R
MR
D000368:Aged; D002304:Cardiac Pacing, Artificial / Q000401:mortality*; D002316:Cardiotonic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D017147:Defibrillators, Implantable / Q000706:statistics & numerical data*; D004554:Electric Countershock / Q000401:mortality*; D005260:Female; D006333:Heart Failure / Q000401:mortality* / Q000517:prevention & control*; D006760:Hospitalization / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D008297:Male; D016032:Randomized Controlled Trials as Topic; D018570:Risk Assessment / Q000379:methods; D012307:Risk Factors; D016896:Treatment Outcome
D002316:Cardiotonic Agents