[Management of premature ventricular ectopy in cardiac resynchronization therapy : Treatment strategies for an...

Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) is an integral part in the treatment of chronic heart failure. However, a high degree of biventricular pacing is essential for the effectiveness of this therapy. In addition to atrial fibrillation, premature ventricular contractions (PVC) are a common cause of reduced biventricular stimulation in CRT. In addition to the prognostically unfavorable reduction of biventricular pacing, PVC are generally associated with reduced outcome in the presence of structural heart disease. Options to increase biventricular stimulation percentage by reprogramming the CRT devices are limited in the majority of cases. Due to the mutual relationship between cardiomyopathy and ventricular arrhythmias, adequate heart failure therapy is essential for the reduction of ventricular ectopy. In addition to beta-blocker therapy, specific antiarrhythmic medication is mostly limited to class III antiarrhythmic drugs due to the structural heart disease usually present in CRT patients. Catheter ablation is superior to pharmacological therapy especially in the field of idiopathic PVC, but promising data are also available for catheter ablation of PVC in structural heart disease and CRT nonresponders.