Heart Failure in the United States
Heart failure is a serious condition. Patients with heart failure are frequently hospitalized, have reduced quality of life and face a higher chance of death. According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention:
"¢ About 5.7 million adults in the United States have heart failure.
"¢ One in 9 deaths in 2009 included heart failure as contributing cause.
"¢ About half of people who develop heart failure die within 5 years of diagnosis.
"¢ Heart failure costs the nation an estimated $30.7 billion each year.3 This total includes the cost of health care services, medications to treat heart failure, and missed days of work.
Heart failure occurs when the heart is unable to pump enough blood to meet the body's demand. For patients experiencing failure, elevated fluid pressures can cause fluid to back up into the lungs, making it hard to breathe.
A device called CardioMEMS allows doctors at McLaren Macomb to measure those pressures in the heart and act on them without even seeing the patient. The miniaturized, wireless monitoring sensor is the first and only FDA-approved heart failure monitoring device that has been proven to significantly reduce hospital admissions when used by physicians to manage heart failure.
The CardioMEMS HF system allows physicians to monitor and treat patients who suffer from heart failure before overt symptoms occur. The system features a sensor that is implanted in the pulmonary artery (PA) during a non-surgical procedure to directly measure PA pressure. The whole process only takes a couple of minutes and is incorporated into the patients' regular daily routine.
Increased PA pressures, a measure of worsening heart failure appear before more noticeable symptoms (such as weight and blood pressure changes). Once implanted, the wireless sensor transmits on a regular basis critical patient information about their heart failure status to an external patient electronic system at McLaren Macomb. Clinicians are then able to detect worsening heart failure sooner and adjust treatment to reduce the likelihood that the patient will need to be hospitalized.
There is no pain or sensation for the patient during the readings. When used by clinicians to manage heart failure, the CardioMEMS HF sensor is designed to last the lifetime of the patient and doesn't require batteries.
Data from a clinical trial shows the CardioMEMS technology reduces heart failure hospitalization by up to 37 percent.
"Patients living with heart failure struggle to maintain a good quality of life due to fatigue, shortness of breath and fluid retention," said Dr. Timothy Logan, cardiologist, McLaren Macomb. "With this device, treatments will be proactive instead of reactive, improving quality of life. Now able to receive regular updates on vital information, our care team can take the necessary steps to address the underlying issue before it becomes a problem and help to keep the patient out of the hospital."
The CardioMEMS HF System, from global medical device manufacturer Abbott, is approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) for commercial use in the U.S. The CardioMEMS HF System is contraindicated for those patients who are unable to take two types of blood thinning medicines for one month after the sensor is implanted.
To learn more about the CardioMEMS HF System contact the McLaren Cardiovascular Institute at (586) 464-4010.