Cognitive Function of Recipients of Primary or Secondary Defibrillator Therapy: A Comparative Study Involving Nondefibrillator Patients With Systolic Heart Failure

Background The extent to which cognitive function differs between patients who receive implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (ICD) therapy and patients with heart failure (HF) who do not receive ICD therapy remains to be elucidated. Objectives The aim of this study was to compare the cognitive function between patients with primary or secondary ICDs and patients with HF without an ICD. Methods This descriptive, comparative study included 116 patients who received ICDs and 74 patients with HF who did not receive ICDs. Patients underwent neuropsychological assessment for general cognition, memory, and executive function. Results Immediate recall memory loss (18.9%) occurred more often in patients with HF without an ICD than in patients with primary (3.1%) and secondary (7.1%) ICDs (P =.018). After adjusting for age and education, delayed recall memory of patients with HF without ICDs was significantly worse than that of patients with primary ICDs (4.0 vs 6.5; P <.001), whereas delayed recall memory of patients with primary ICDs was better than that of patients with secondary ICDs (6.0 vs 6.5; P =.006). Executive function of patients with HF without ICDs was significantly worse than that of patients with primary (35 vs 58 seconds; P <.001) and secondary (28 vs 58 seconds; P =.0012) ICDs. Conclusions Patients with ICDs, regardless of primary or secondary indication, had less impairment of memory and executive function than patients with HF without ICDs, implying that ICD therapy did not interfere with cognitive performance. Cognitive screening as a part of routine care could be helpful for identifying impairment and implementing early cognitive training, especially in patients with HF.