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Background: Up to 30% of patients with heart failure do not respond to cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT). This may reflect placement of the coronary sinus lead in regions of slow conduction despite optimal positioning on current criteria.

Objectives: To characterise the effect of CRT on left ventricular activation using non-contact mapping and to examine the electrophysiological factors influencing optimal left ventricular lead placement.

Methods and results: 10 patients implanted with biventricular pacemakers were studied. In six, the coronary sinus lead was found to be positioned in a region of slow conduction with an average conduction velocity of 0.4 m/s, v 1.8 m/s in normal regions (p < 0.02). Biventricular pacing with the left ventricle paced 32 ms before the right induced the optimal mean velocity time integral and timing for fusion of depolarisation wavefronts from the right and left ventricular pacing …