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Wearable Cardioverter-Defibrillator After Myocardial Infarction, Jeffrey E. Olgin, Mark J. Pletcher, Eric Vittinghoff, Jerzy Wranicz, Rajesh Malik, Daniel P. Morin, Steven Zweibel, Alfred E. Buxton, Claude S. Elayi, Eugene H. Chung, Eric Rashba, Martin Borggrefe, Trisha F Hue, Carol Maguire, Feng Lin, Joel A. Simon, Stephen Hulley, Byron K. Lee, Vest Investigators

Gill Heart & Vascular Institute Faculty Publications

BACKGROUND

Despite the high rate of sudden death after myocardial infarction among patients with a low ejection fraction, implantable cardioverter–defibrillators are contraindicated until 40 to 90 days after myocardial infarction. Whether a wearable cardioverter–defibrillator would reduce the incidence of sudden death during this high-risk period is unclear.

METHODS

We randomly assigned (in a 2:1 ratio) patients with acute myocardial infarction and an ejection fraction of 35% or less to receive a wearable cardioverter–defibrillator plus guideline-directed therapy (the device group) or to receive only guideline-directed therapy (the control group). The primary outcome was the composite of sudden death or death from …