Novel potential biomarkers with predictive power on response to therapy in cardiac resynchronization therapy – cardiac oxidative stress assesment

CRT represents the transition from the heart rhythm therapy, started more than 60 years ago with the first pacemakers, to the optimization therapy of myocardial contractility in heart failure. It is estimated that about a quarter of the population of patients with heart failure have electrical and mechanical criteria for cardiac asynchrony. They are the target of resynchronization therapy. The current indications for resynchronization therapy use basic selection criteria, without having high predictive power in terms of response to treatment. About one-third of patients undergoing resynchronization are found to be non-responsive to therapy. In this study we tested a new direction in our effort to increase the number of post-resynchronization beneficiaries, using markers of oxidative stress in patients with heart failure, assessed before and after intervention, with promising results.