Long-term Outcomes
A Kaplan-Meier analysis showed there was no significance difference in
the composite outcome of hospitalizations from worsening heart failure
and cardiovascular death among the three groups after the upgrade to CRT
(p = 0.19). There were also no significant differences in cardiovascular
death (p = 0.36) (Figure 4) . In group 1, however, the incidence
of those adverse events tended to be lower than that in the other
groups. No cardiovascular death occurred during the follow-up period in
group 1. The mean recurrence-free period for the composite endpoint was
longer in group 1 (2311 days, [95% CI; 1980–2642 days]) than group
2 (1989 days, [95% CI; 1494–2483 days]) and group 3 (1615 days,
[95% CI; 1241 –1988 days]).