Time to First Shock in Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator (ICD) Patients with Chagas Cardiomyopathy

The time to first ICD shock has been extensively studied in patients with coronary artery disease (CAD). However, there are no published data on ICD shocks in patients with Chagas cardiomyopathy (ChC). The occurrence of the first appropriate ICD shock during the first 6 months of follow-up in 20 patients with ChC (group 1) and 35 CAD patients (group 2) was analyzed retrospectively. All patients had received a third-generation pectoral ICD for ventricular tachycardia or fibrillation (VT/VF). Indications for ICD implantation were refractoriness to drug therapy or noninducibility of VT/VF at EPS in cardiac arrest survivors. Results: The mean age, left ventricular ejection fraction (LVEF), and sex in groups I and II were 57.4 ± 7 years versus 64 ± 9 (P < 0.01), 30.9%± 10% versus 32.9%± 10% (P = NS), and 10 men versus 31 women (P < 0.005), respectively. Six months after ICD implantation, 85% (17/20) group I patients received appropriate ICD shocks versus 51 % (18/35) in group 2, a statistically significant difference (P < 0.02, RR: 1.65, OR: 5.35). Conclusions: The incidence of appropriate ICD shocks within the first 6 months postimplantation was significantly higher in ChC patients than in CAD patients. ChC patients were younger and more often women than CAD patients.     

Who Would Pay Higher Taxes for Better Mental Health? Results of a Large‐Sample National Choice Experiment

Policy Points

•  Public funding for mental health programs must compete with other funding priorities in limited state budgets.
•  Valuing state‐funded mental health programs in a policy‐relevant context requires consideration of how much benefit from other programs the public is willing to forgo to increase mental health program benefits and how much the public is willing to be taxed for such program benefits.
•  Taxpayer resistance to increased taxes to pay for publicly funded mental health programs and perceived benefits of such programs vary with state population size.
•  In all states, taxpayers seem to support increased public funding for mental health programs such as state Medicaid services, suggesting such programs are underfunded from the perspective of the average taxpayer.

ContextThe direct and indirect impacts of serious mental illness (SMI) on health care systems and communities represents a significant burden. However, the value that community members place on alleviating this burden is not known, and SMI treatment must compete with a long list of other publicly funded priorities. This study defines the value of public mental health interventions as what the public would accept, either in the form of higher taxes or in reductions in nonhealth programs, in return for increases in the number of mental health program beneficiaries.MethodsWe developed and fielded a best‐practice discrete‐choice experiment survey to quantify respondents’ willingness to be taxed for increased spending among several competing programs, including a program for treating severe mental health conditions. A realistic decision frame was used to elicit respondents’ willingness to support expanded state budgets for mental health programs if that expansion required either cuts in the competing publicly financed programs or tax increases. The survey was administered to a general population national sample of 10,000 respondents.FindingsNearly half the respondents in our sample either chose “no budget increase” for all budget scenarios or had preferences that were too disordered to estimate trade‐off values. Including zero values for those respondents, we found that the mean (median) amount that all respondents were willing to be taxed annually for public mental health programs ranged between $156 ($99) per year for large‐population states and $343 ($181) per year for small‐population states. Respondents would accept reductions of between 1.6 and 3.4 beneficiaries in other programs in return for 1 additional mental health program beneficiary.ConclusionsOur results are consistent with findings that a substantial portion of the US public is unwilling to pay higher taxes. Nevertheless, even including the substantial number of respondents who opposed any tax increase, the willingness of both the mean and median respondent to be taxed for mental health program expansions implies that programs providing mental health services such as state Medicaid are underfunded.     

Cardiac Resynchronization in a Child with Dilated Cardiomyopathy and Borderline QRS Duration: Speckle Tracking Guided Lead Placement

Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) is proved to prevent heart transplantation in some patients with dilated cardiomyopathy and mechanical dyssynchrony. We report of the benefit of CRT accomplished by atrial synchronized single-site left ventricular pacing in an 8-year-old boy with idiopathic dilated cardiomyopathy, normal atrioventricular conduction, borderline QRS complex duration (120 ms), and marked mechanical left ventricular dyssynchrony proved by echocardiographic speckle tracking.