Cited by 6,552Cardiac pacing and defibrillation studiesHeart Failure Treatment and ManagementCardiac Health and Mental Health

Amiodarone or an Implantable Cardioverter–Defibrillator for Congestive Heart Failure

Open access
Bardy, Gust H., Lee, Kerry L., Mark, Daniel B., Poole, Jeanne E., Packer, Douglas L., Boineau, Robin, Domanski, Michael, Troutman, Charles +9 more·2005·New England Journal of Medicine

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Sudden death from cardiac causes remains a leading cause of death among patients with congestive heart failure (CHF). Treatment with amiodarone or an implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) has been proposed to improve the prognosis in such patients. METHODS: We randomly assigned 2521 patients with New York Heart Association (NYHA) class II or III CHF and a left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF) of 35 percent or less to conventional therapy for CHF plus placebo (847 patients), conventional therapy plus amiodarone (845 patients), or conventional therapy plus a conservatively programmed, shock-only, single-lead ICD (829 patients). Placebo and amiodarone were administered in a double-blind fashion. The primary end point was death from any cause. RESULTS: The median LVEF in patients was 25 percent; 70 percent were in NYHA class II, and 30 percent were in class III CHF. The cause of CHF was ischemic in 52 percent and nonischemic in 48 percent. The median follow-up was 45.5 months. There were 244 deaths (29 percent) in the placebo group, 240 (28 percent) in the amiodarone group, and 182 (22 percent) in the ICD group. As compared with placebo, amiodarone was associated with a similar risk of death (hazard ratio, 1.06; 97.5 percent confidence interval, 0.86 to 1.30; P=0.53) and ICD therapy was associated with a decreased risk of death of 23 percent (0.77; 97.5 percent confidence interval, 0.62 to 0.96; P=0.007) and an absolute decrease in mortality of 7.2 percentage points after five years in the overall population. Results did not vary according to either ischemic or nonischemic causes of CHF, but they did vary according to the NYHA class. CONCLUSIONS: In patients with NYHA class II or III CHF and LVEF of 35 percent or less, amiodarone has no favorable effect on survival, whereas single-lead, shock-only ICD therapy reduces overall mortality by 23 percent.

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Integrity signals

Registry

Crossref · 10.1056/nejmoa043399

Cites

21 of 21 references verified0 citation errors · 0 not checkable

Statistics

Claims the paper makes

The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.

Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.

A few free checks a day · papers already verified open instantly · results are public

Claims other papers make about this one

Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?

Self-check

Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.

The self-check needs the paper’s full text.

Cites

Part of this paper’s reference list could not be split into single entries.

Flagged first, then by citations

Research works printed but not linked: 2

  1. [4]4. Jessup, F Marchlinski, D. DiMarzio; Tri-City Cardiology, Mesa, N.M.: A. Kaplan, E. Perlstein, B. Allen, D. Cook, K. Enders; Advanced Heart Cen- ter, Fort Myers, Fla.: J. Butler, J. Scrivner-Hanson; Toronto General Hospital, Toronto: D. Cameron, H. Ross, A. Hill; University of Pennsylvania Health System -HUP Medical Center, Philadelphia: M. Jessup, F. Marchlinski, F. Pickering; Iowa Heart Center, Des Moines: S. Bailin, W. Wickemeyer, D. French; WJB Dorn Veterans Affairs Medical Center, Columbia, S.C.: S. Hsu, C. Hassapoyannes, N. Pahtrik, K. Chavarda; McGuire Veterans Affairs Med- ical Center, Richmond, Va.: K. Ellenbogen, D. Gilligan, P. Mohanty, D. Sargent, A. Hirsch; Hartford Hospital, Hartford, Conn.: J. Kluger, J. Dough- erty, H. Rose, A. Adeni; Medical College of Virginia, Richmond: D. Gilligan, K. Ellenbogen, P. Mohanty, M. Hess, C. Dietrich, K. Hall; Louisville Cardiology Medical Group, Louisville, Ky.: J. Dakas, M. Imburgia, M. Springer, P. Tucker, K. Hulsmeyer; Boston Medical Center, Boston: K. Mona- han, M. Givertz, A. Dermovsesian, T. Lavey; University of California Los Angeles, Los Angeles: Z. Feliciano, G. Fonarow, N. Livingston, J. Creaser; University of Oklahoma Health Sciences Center, Oklahoma City: K. Beckman, P. Adamson, D. Reynolds, A. Luby; Mission Hospital, Mission Viejo, Calif.: S. Ehrlich, G. Thomas, M. Whalen; Georgetown University Medical Center, Washington, D.C.: A. Solomon, D. Pearle, N. Knowlan; University of Ken- tucky, Lexington: J. Gurley, M. Hasan, W. Abraham, L. Withrow, J. Zielke; Forum Health, Youngstown, Ohio: M. Raheja, J. Graziano, D. Kaiser, C. Opritza; University of Arkansas for Medical Science, Little Rock: J. Bissett, J. Joseph, S. Shuler; John H. McClellan Memorial Veteran Hospital, Little Rock, Ark.: J. Bissett, J. Joseph, S. Shuler, P. Harrison; Houston Arrhythmia Associates, Houston: S. Jalal, A. Drtil, F. Khan, D. Williams; St. Joseph's Hos- pital Health Center, Fayetteville, N.Y.: N. Kavesh, G. Kenien, D. Lynch; Hoag Memorial Hospital, Newport Beach, Calif.: N.D. Hunter, R. Haskell, A. Woodson; Buffalo Cardiology & Pulmonary Associates, Williamsville, N.Y.: J. Corbelli, B. Cooke; Tulane University School of Medicine, New Orleans: J.
  2. [8]8. Kadish A, Dyer A, Daubert JP, et al. Pro- phylactic defibrillator implantation in pa- tients with nonischemic dilated cardiomy- opathy. N Engl J Med 2004;350:2151-8.

Cited by

Sorted by citations

Authors
Bardy, G. H., Lee, K. L., Mark, D. B., Poole, J. E., Packer, D. L., Boineau, R., Domanski, M., Troutman, C., Anderson, J., Johnson, G., McNulty, S. E., Clapp-Channing, N., Davidson-Ray, L. D., Fraulo, E. S., Fishbein, D. P., Luceri, R. M., & Ip, J. H.
Affiliations
  • The Seattle Institute for Cardiac Research (US)
  • Duke University (US)
  • University of Washington (US)
  • Mayo Clinic (US)
  • National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (US)
Venue
New England Journal of Medicine
Published
2005-01-20
Volume
352
Issue
3
Pages
225-237
ISSN
  • 0028-4793 (ISSN-L)
  • 1533-4406
OpenAlex
W2075175982
Cited by
6,552
References
20
Citations by year
2026: 126 · 2025: 170 · 2024: 173 · 2023: 186 · 2022: 231 · 2021: 236 · 2020: 261 · 2019: 285 · 2018: 287 · 2017: 394 · 2016: 326 · 2015: 355 · 2014: 335 · 2013: 369 · 2012: 376
FWCI
292.60
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
Locations
  • New England Journal of Medicine (publishedVersion)
  • PubMed (publishedVersion)
Funders
National Heart, Lung, and Blood Institute (UO1 HL55297, UO1 HL55496, UO1 HL55766, U01HL055297, U01HL055766, U01HL055496)
Topics
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Cardiac pacing and defibrillation studies
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Heart Failure Treatment and Management
  • Health Sciences › Medicine › Cardiology and Cardiovascular Medicine › Cardiac Health and Mental Health
Keywords
amiodarone, implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, congestive heart failure, sudden cardiac death, mortality, left ventricular ejection fraction, NYHA functional class, antiarrhythmic therapy
MeSH terms
Aged, Amiodarone, Anti-Arrhythmia Agents, Cause of Death, Female, Heart Failure, Humans, Male, Middle Aged, Risk, Stroke Volume, Survival Analysis, Death, Sudden, Cardiac, Defibrillators, Implantable, Cross-Over Studies

About these checks

Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.

Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.

Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.

What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›

Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review