New Heart Monitoring System tested

SPRINGFIELD - July 11, 2003 - A Springfield woman who has heart failure can now be monitored from her home simply by a physician's connection to the Internet. Prairie Education and Research Cooperative and the Prairie Heart Institute at St. John's Hospital in Springfield are participating in a Medtronic clinical trial with an implantable monitor known as the ChronicleR system.

Patients are testing a first-of-its kind implantable monitor that transmits critical data from their heart over the telephone to a secure server for viewing on a website, eliminating travel to the doctor's office for the same type of monitoring.

This device could herald a major breakthrough for the growing number of people diagnosed with heart failure, said Dr. Stephen Jennison who is overseeing the trial locally. Those living with heart failure could enjoy an improved lifestyle with less dependency on frequent doctor visits. Because of this technology, we are able to adjust medicines and other therapies without an office visit. Doctors Brian Miller and James Mullin will be implanting the devices.

The Chronicle device is about the size of a 2 silver dollars stacked on top of each other and is implanted in the upper chest. A sensor attached to the monitor is threaded through a vein into the heart's right ventricle, where it measures heart rate, heart temperature and blood pressure inside the heart.

When a patient with an implanted Chronicle device is scheduled to download information, he rests an additional device over the implant site. He connects a monitor to a standard phone line, and information about his heart condition is downloaded to a secure server for viewing by a clinician at a password protected website. It takes approximately 15 minutes to transmit the information. The Chronicle Implantable Hemodynamic Monitor measures various pressures within the heart, that can greatly assist in the diagnosis of heart failure and shortness of breath. Quite often, patients with heart failure who eat too much sodium retain water and have more fluid in their blood. The heart has to pump harder if they have too much or not enough fluid.

Patient convenience is just one benefit the device has to offer. Data from the monitor may indicate serious cardiac events are on the horizon days before actual physical symptoms occur. It can give us a head start on treating problems that often wouldn't show up until after a visit to the hospital for invasive testing, said Jennison.

A review of transmitted data from the monitor can rule out serious problems in the heart and save the patient anguish and perhaps an unnecessary trip to the hospital, added Jennison.

The device has not been approved for general use. However data accumulated by researchers at Prairie Heart Institute at St. John's Hospital and other test sites around the country could lead to Food and Drug Administration approval of the device.

Almost five million Americans suffer from heart failure, and it is the most common cause of hospitalization for older people. Because a failing heart can't pump efficiently, blood circulation is impaired causing shortness of breath, fluid in the lungs and swelling in the legs.