Washington, Sep 1 - A therapy called cardiac 'resynchronisation' reduced risk of heart failures by 41 percent, says an international study.

'This shows, for the first time, that the onset of heart failure symptoms and hospitalisation for heart failure can be delayed with pacing therapy,' said David Wilber, director of the Cardiovascular Institute at Loyola University (Chicago) Stritch School of Medicine.

Cardiac resynchronisation therapy (CRT) is an innovative new therapy that can relieve congestive heart failure (CHF) symptoms, by improving the coordination of its contractions.

It is done with the help of electrical impulses delivered by a device implanted in the upper chest, that help synchronise contractions of the left ventricle, the heart's main pumping chamber.

The study included 1,820 patients from 110 centres in the US, Canada and Europe. All patients in the trial had been diagnosed with early stage, mild heart failure (Class 1 and Class 2 on the New York Heart Association classification system), according to a Loyola release.