Electrical and mechanical ventricular activation during left bundle branch block and resynchronization.
Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) aims to treat selected heart failure patients suffering from conduction abnormalities with left bundle branch block (LBBB) as the culprit disease. LBBB remained largely underinvestigated until it became apparent that the amount of response to CRT was heterogeneous and that the therapy and underlying pathology were thus incompletely understood. In this review, current knowledge concerning activation in LBBB and during biventricular pacing will be explored and applied to current CRT practice, highlighting novel ways to better measure and treat the electrical substrate.
Department of Physiology, Cardiovascular Research Institute Maastricht, Maastricht University, Maastricht 6200 MD, The Netherlands. m.strik@maastrichtuniversity.nl
Marc
M
Strik
François
F
Regoli
Angelo
A
Auricchio
Frits
F
Prinzen
D002037:Bundle-Branch Block / Q000503:physiopathology* / Q000628:therapy; D058406:Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy; D004562:Electrocardiography; D006801:Humans; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D016277:Ventricular Function, Left / Q000502:physiology*