Sensor could reduce heart failure admissions

CONGESTIVE heart failure sufferers can reduce frequent surprise hospital visits with monitoring device that has been proven to significantly reduce hospital admissions when used by physicians to manage the condition.

The CardioMEMS HF System, the first and only US FDA-approved heart failure wireless monitoring technology, features a sensor that is implanted through a catheter into the pulmonary artery (PA) to directly measure PA pressure. Increased PA pressures appear before weight and blood pressure changes, which are often used as indirect measures of worsening heart failure.

CardioMEMS is about the size of a U.S. dime; (illustrated inset) the wireless device implanted in the pulmonary artery (St. Jude Medical)

The sensor implant allows patients to transmit daily sensor readings from their homes to their healthcare providers, allowing for personalized management to reduce the likelihood of hospitalization. There is no pain or sensation for the patient during the readings from the sensor, which is designed to last the lifetime of the patient and doesn’t require batteries.

“All the patient has to do is lie back on a special pad,” explained Bradford E. Warden, M.D., director of the WVU Heart Institute. Radio waves are then transmitted to an external electronic system, and the device measures pressure in the pulmonary artery.”

“It lets us notice any pressure changes three or four weeks before the patient develops pulmonary edema from exacerbated congestive heart failure. It gives us a chance to get pulmonary edema under control by adjusting medications while keeping the patient out of the hospital and in the comfort of his or her own home,” said Dr Warden, who is also the nation’s first certified individual practitioner.