Potential benefits of LVAD to be examined

Source：University of Michigan Health Sy Release Date：2013-01-16 186

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Study to observe if patients with advanced heart failure, but who are not sick enough to meet current guidelines for a left ventricular assist device, would benefit from earlier implantation of an LVAD

THE University of Michigan Cardiovascular Center and the University of Pittsburgh Medical Center (UPMC) will gain a new partner as it commences its study of earlier device use for patients with congestive heart failure.

Thoratec Corporation, maker of HeartMate II? left ventricular assist system, will provide up to $11 million to co-sponsor the REVIVE-IT study with the U.S. National Institutes of Health's National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute, which is providing $5.2 million of support.

REVIVE-IT will explore the potential benefits of left ventricular assist devices for the large and growing group of Americans with heart failure. Thoratec’s HeartMate II? will be the study device.

University of Michigan and UPMC researchers will investigate whether patients with advanced heart failure who are not sick enough to meet current guidelines for an LVAD or a heart transplant do better with an LVAD than with current medical therapy.

Principal investigators include Keith Aaronson, M.D., M.S., medical director of the Heart Transplant Program and Center for Circulatory Support at the U-M Cardiovascular Center, Francis D. Pagani, M.D., Ph.D., surgical director of the Heart Transplant Program and the Center for Circulatory Support at the U-M, and Robert Kormos, M.D., director of the UPMC Artificial Heart Program and co-director of the UPMC Heart Transplantation Program.

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