Heart patients given ground-breaking implants

Five Christchurch heart patients are believed to be the first in the world to have been implanted with tiny sensors to monitor congestive heart failure.

The operations are part of a cutting edge international research trial.

Dr Richard Troughton, one of the trial's principal investigators and a researcher at the Christchurch School of Medicine and Health, says the technology allows the patient to directly monitor pressure on the left atrium of the heart and adjust their medication to suit.

This was similar to the way in which diabetics adjusted insulin dosage in response to home glucose monitoring, he said.

Left atrial pressure is a key measurement for predicting acute worsening of heart failure that leads to lung congestion and the need for urgent hospitalisation.

"The first three patients have already reached the primary trial end point which is six weeks after implantation and they are all doing well with no major adverse cardiac or neurological impact," Dr Troughton said.

The trial is being conducted at four international sites, led by Christchurch, which implanted the first devices.

"This is largely because of the excellent team we have working on the study."

The technology, developed by Californian company Savacor, has already given researchers new insight in the dynamic cardiac changes that occur on a daily basis.

Dr Troughton said the team was hopeful that "real time monitoring" would allow them to minimise complications such as recurrent hospitalisation, acute pulmonary edema and renal failure.

Savacor chief executive Neal Eigler said the early phase trial being conducted in New Zealand would help gather information necessary for larger-scale investigations.

The international study's chair and chief of cardiology at Ohio State University Dr William Abraham said the number of patients contracting heart failure was expected to double within the next decade as baby boomers age and develop heart disease.

- NZPA