Abdulla KH, Sherazi S, Goldenberg I, et al. - Whether systolic blood pressure (SBP) evaluation at 12 months post-cardiac resynchronization therapy can help recognize patients with increased risk for adverse cardiovascular outcomes, was investigated in this study performed on 1,000 patients who underwent cardiac resynchronization therapy implantation in MADIT-CRT. Researchers compared outcomes between patients with low (< 110 mmHg) and preserved SBP (≥ 110 mmHg) at one year. Patients with low SBP vs a preserved SBP at 12 months had a significantly higher rate of heart failure or death during subsequent follow-up, as revealed in the Kaplan-Meier survival analysis. Consistently, a 29% lower risk of HF or death was observed in patients with preserved SBP at one year vs the low SBP group, as revealed in the multivariate analysis. Based on the findings, experts concluded that an improved long-term risk stratification in this population can be achieved by SBP evaluation after cardiac resynchronization therapy.