Cause-of-death analysis in patients with cardiac resynchronization therapy with or without a defibrillator: a systematic review and proportional meta-analysis.

The additional benefit of a defibrillator in cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) patients is a matter of debate. Cause-of-death analysis in a CRT population has been recently proposed as a useful approach to gain insight into this problem. We performed a systematic review and meta-analysis looking at cause of death in studies involving CRT subjects with (CRT-D) or without (CRT-P) a defibrillator.