July 14, 2017 — A review appearing in the July 18 issue of the Journal of the American College of Cardiology (JACC) discusses current and next-generation implantable hemodynamic monitors. The review particularly examines new approaches focused on the direct measurement of left atrial pressure (LAP), seeking to expand the use of pressure-guided congestive heart failure (CHF) management.
The report highlights Vectorious Medical Technologies, an Israeli company developing the world’s first digital wireless sensory implant for measuring LAP (currently available CardioMEMS technology is analog and measures pressure in the pulmonary artery [PAP]). Patients with CHF suffer from repeated admissions to the hospital due to fluid overload, typically presenting with edema of the legs and congestion of the lungs. The conventional approach of monitoring symptoms and measuring daily weights and a “wait and see” attitude, is the basis for the huge unmet need of recurrent hospital admissions, because these methods appear late and are unreliable signs of disease progression. This is also the main driver of the huge cost of this chronic medical condition, more than $30 billion a year, in the United States alone, according to background contained in the review.
“Intracardiac and PAP-guided management has become a focus of hospitalization reduction in CHF,” wrote William T. Abraham, M.D., and Leor Perl, M.D. Abraham is from the Departments of Medicine, Physiology and Cell Biology, Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, and the Davis Heart & Lung Research Institute, The Ohio State University, Columbus, Ohio. Perl is in the Cardiology Department, Rabin Medical Center, Petah Tikva, Israel; on the Sackler Faculty of Medicine, Tel Aviv University; and in the Division of Cardiovascular Medicine, Stanford University Medical Center, Stanford, Calif.
LAP, rather than PAP, is a direct reflection of left ventricular filling pressure — which is the primary pressure target for CHF management. Therefore, its direct measurement may provide more clinical information than PAP, according to the authors.
In the JACC review, Abraham and Perl say that CHF outcomes with CardioMEMS PAP technology have been encouraging. They write that, additional, more technologically-advanced, implantable hemodynamic monitoring systems are in development, and newer approaches to the use of this data (such as a physician-directed, patient self-management approach) may yet again revolutionize the management of patients with HF.
Both Abraham and Perl have received consulting fees from Vectorious. Perl is also the medical director.
Read the article "Reducing Heart Failure Readmissions."
For more information: www.vectoriousmedtech.com
April 16, 2024 
