Echocardiographic screening for heart failure and optimization of the care pathway for individuals with pacemakers: a randomized controlled trial

Individuals with pacemakers are at increased risk of left ventricular systolic dysfunction (LVSD). Whether screening for and optimizing the medical management of LVSD in these individuals can improve clinical outcomes is unknown. In the present study, in a multicenter controlled trial (OPT-PACE), we randomized 1,201 patients (717 men) with a pacemaker to echocardiography screening or usual care. In the screening arm, LVSD was detected in 201 of 600 (34%) patients, who then received management in either primary care or a specialist heart failure (HF) and devices clinic. The primary outcome of the trial was the difference in a composite of time to first HF hospitalization or death. Over 31 months (interquartile range = 30–40 months), the primary outcome occurred in 106 of 600 (18%) patients receiving echocardiography screening, which was not significantly different compared with the occurrence of the primary outcome in 115 of 601 (19%) patients receiving the usual care (hazard ratio = 0.89; 95% confidence interval = 0.69, 1.17). In a prespecified, nonrandomized, exploratory analysis, patients with LVSD managed by the specialist clinic experienced the primary outcome event less frequently than those managed in primary care. The results of this trial indicate that echocardiography screening commonly identifies LVSD in individuals with pacemakers but alone does not alter outcomes. ClinicalTrials.gov registration: NCT01819662 . For individuals with pacemakers, a care pathway that includes echocardiographic screening to detect signs of heart failure did not improve cardiac outcomes, but patients flagged as having impaired heart function who were managed by a specialized heart failure clinic benefited, as compared to those managed by primary care physicians.