Effect of obesity on the effectiveness of cardiac resynchronization to reduce the risk of first and recurrent ventricular tachyarrhythmia events

BACKGROUND: Obesity is associated with multiple adverse cardiovascular conditions and may increase the risk of ventricular tachyarrhythmias (VT/VF). There is limited data on the association between obesity and risk of VT/VF requiring appropriate implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) therapies and the effectiveness of cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) to reduce risk for VT/VF. The multicenter automatic defibrillator implantation trial with cardiac resynchronization therapy (MADIT-CRT) was design to investigate effectiveness of CRT therapy to reduce cardiovascular outcome for patients with heart failure (HF) and reduced ejection fraction. METHODS AND RESULTS: We identified patients enrolled in the MADIT CRT trial as obese (n = 433) and non-obese (n = 845) and analyzed their risk for appropriate device therapy for VT/VF, repeated VT/VF events, fast VT/VF, as well as events after first VT/VF episodes. Obesity was defined as body mass index (BMI) ≥30 kg/m(2). Among ICD patients, the risk of first appropriate ICD therapy for VT/VF at 3 years was similar between obese and non-obese patients (23 vs. 21 %, p = 0.76). CRT-D treatment reduced the risk of first appropriate ICD therapy both in non-obese ([HR]; 0.58 [CI]: 0.42–0.79; p < 0.001) and obese patients (HR 0.75, 95 % CI 0.5–1.38; p = 0.179) (interaction p value 0.323). Similarly, a significant reduction in the risk of fast VT/VF was observed in non-obese patients ([HR]; 0.49 [CI]: 0.33–0.73; p < 0.001) and obese ([HR]; 0.49 [CI]: 0.29–0.81; p < 0.01), (interaction p value 0.984). CONCLUSION: Obese and non-obese patients with mild heart failure have a similar risk of ventricular tachyarrhythmias. Obesity in mild heart failure did not diminish the clinical benefit of cardiac resynchronization therapy to reduce risk for appropriate ICD therapy. Clinical trial registrationhttp://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT00180271 ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (doi:10.1186/s12933-016-0401-x) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.