**11. Conclusions**

The WCD is an important advancement in the armamentarium for cardiovascular disease and demonstrates safe, effective therapy, but patient compliance remains a concern. The WCD is an interim therapeutic alternative to the ICD. In some cases, the WCD may help patients recover significant systolic function to the point that an ICD is no longer necessary. Patients who need the WCD should receive individual one-on-one instruction in how to use the device, and clinicians should be prepared that there may be a degree of psychological distress. Nevertheless, these devices are important advancement in cardiac care for people at risk of dangerous arrhythmias.

#### **Acknowledgements**

The authors gratefully acknowledge Todd Cooper of Coyote Studios in Green Valley, California, for the artwork in **Figure 1**.

**Author details**

*The Wearable Cardioverter-Defibrillator DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.5772/intechopen.90663*

**83**

Peter Magnusson1,2, Joseph V. Pergolizzi3 and Jo Ann LeQuang<sup>3</sup>

2 Department of Medicine, Cardiology Research Unit, Karolinska Institutet, Sweden

© 2019 The Author(s). Licensee IntechOpen. This chapter is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/ by/3.0), which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium,

1 Centre for Research and Development, Uppsala, Sweden

\*Address all correspondence to: joannlequang@gmail.com

3 NEMA Research, Inc., Naples, Florida, USA

provided the original work is properly cited.

\*
