The role of electrocardiography in the elaboration of a new paradigm in cardiac resynchronization therapy for patients with nonspecific intraventricular conduction disturbance

Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) is associated with a favorable outcome only in patients with left bundle branch block (LBBB) pattern and in patients with a QRS duration > 150 ms, in patients with non-LBBB pattern with a QRS duration of 120–150 ms usually is not beneficial. After adjusting for QRS duration, QRS morphology was no longer a determinant of the clinical response to CRT. In contrast to the mainstream view, we hypothesized that the unfavorable CRT outcome in patients with non-LBBB and a QRS duration of 120–150 ms is not due to the QRS morphology itself, but to less dyssynchrony and unfavorable patient characteristics in this subgroup, such as more ischemic etiology and greater prevalence of male patients compared with patients with LBBB pattern. Further, the current CRT technique is devised to eliminate the dyssynchrony present in patients with LBBB pattern and inappropriate to eliminate the dyssynchrony in patients with non-LBBB pattern. We also hypothesized that electrocardiography may also provide information about the presence of interventricular and left intraventricular dyssynchrony and the approximate location of the latest activated left ventricular (LV) region. To this end, we devised new ECG criteria to estimate interventricular and LV intraventricular dyssynchrony and the approximate location of the latest activated LV region. Our preliminary data demonstrated that the latest activated LV region in patients with nonspecific intraventricular conduction disturbance (NICD) pattern might be at a remote site from that present in patients with LBBB pattern, which might necessitate the invention of a novel CRT technique for patients with NICD pattern. The application of the new interventricular and LV intraventricular dyssynchrony ECG criteria and a potential novel CRT technique might decrease the currently high nonresponder rate in patients with NICD pattern.