Miniature heart sensor keeps heart failure patients out of the hospital
Cardiologists at The Mount Sinai Hospital have begun implanting tiny, state-of-the-art microchip sensors in patients with advanced heart failure to better monitor symptoms and reduce their chances of returning to the hospital.
The implantable sensor, called the CardioMEMS HF System, developed by St. Jude Medical, is a battery-less, dime-sized device placed directly inside the heart to monitor its pulmonary artery. Implanted through a minimally invasive procedure, the sensor detects increases in pulmonary artery pressure, an early sign of worsening heart failure that can be detected before symptoms arise. Among the symptoms of advanced heart failure is shortness of breath, the kind of frightening experience that sends people racing to emergency rooms.
Once implanted, the device transmits daily pressure readings to a patient’s medical team, who can then proactively provide real-time, personalised feedback before symptoms worsen. The device has been shown in clinical trials to reduce hospital readmissions for advanced heart failure patients by up to 37 percent.
The new microchip technology is designed for advanced heart failure patients who have been hospitalised within the previous 12 months. The goal of Mount Sinai’s heart failure experts is to improve the quality of life in patients with heart failure and reduce the likelihood of hospital readmissions, a growing trend for this high-risk patient population which has become a national priority for the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services to reduce readmissions to curb growing healthcare costs.
‘This new device will enable heart failure patients to live more comfortably, easing their worries as we closely monitor them for the earliest signs of fluid retention, a major cause of the symptoms of breathlessness and tiredness heart failure patients experience,’ says Raymond Bietry, MD, Assistant Professor of Cardiology who was the first cardiologist at Mount Sinai to implant the device. Mount Sinai Hospital
