Response to Letter Regarding Article, “Relationship of Echocardiographic Dyssynchrony to Long-Term Survival After Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy”

Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) has undoubtedly been of major benefit to many patients who have heart failure with wide QRS complexes, improving symptoms and survival. Unfortunately, the CRT nonresponder rate remains at about one third with the use of the current selection criteria. An appropriate goal is to better understand the factors related to nonresponse to improve patient care. In a recent study of 229 CRT patients, we reported that the absence of echocardiographic dyssynchrony was associated with a significantly less favorable event-free survival with the use of the combined end point of death, heart transplantation, or left ventricular assist device over 4 years after CRT.1 We appreciate the commendation from Fornwalt et al in their letter and …