Association of implantable defibrillator therapy risk with body mass index in systolic heart failure

Objectives To determine whether risk for implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) therapy varies by body mass index (BMI) in systolic heart failure (HF). Background It is unknown whether obesity increases sudden death risk in patients with systolic HF. Methods Secondary analysis of patients with HF, left ventricular ejection fraction ≤0.40 and ICD (N = 464) was performed using Cox regression modeling to assess risk for first delivered ICD therapy, with patients grouped by BMI (kg/m2): normal (18.5 to