The impact of implantable cardioverter defibrillator on the prognosis of nonischemic dilated cardiomyopathy patients compared with standard medical treatments

Background: Patients with nonischemic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) are susceptible to arrhythmias and implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) in addition to medical treatments may help prevent sudden cardiac death (SCD) and improve survival in this population. Hypothesis: We aim to investigate the impact of ICD insertion on survival and prognosis of patients with nonischemic DCM. Methods: We retrospectively analyzed data from patients with nonischemic DCM treated with medical therapy with or without ICD who referred to our hospital from January 2020 to November 2021. Patients were divided based on the treatment that they had received into two equal groups. Different variables including demographic features, comorbidities, medical treatments, hospitalization rate, function class, and left ventricular ejection fraction before and after treatments were investigated in this study. In addition, variables in survival including overall survival (OS) and SCD were compared between the two groups. Results: A total of 120 patients were investigated in this study. Mean +/- SD of age and follow-up time of patients were 64.0 +/- 12.7 years old and 59.5 +/- 14.8 months, respectively. Ten (16.7%) patients with medical therapy, and seven (11.7%) patients with ICD and medical therapy died during the follow-up period (p = 0.25). However, the two groups had a significant difference regarding SCD (11.7% vs. 1.7%, p = 0.02). Conclusion: In patients with nonischemic DCM who had undergone ICD insertion in addition to standard medical treatments, SCD was significantly reduced compared with patients receiving just medical treatments. OS had no significant difference between our two studied groups.

Automated summary

This study retrospectively analyzed data from patients with nonischemic dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) treated at our hospital from January 2020 to November 2021. The study found that in addition to standard medical treatments, the insertion of an implantable cardioverter defibrillator (ICD) can significantly reduce the sudden cardiac death (SCD) rate in patients with nonischemic DCM.