Faster Telemetry Offered by New Defibrillators

New implantable devices for treating patients with potentially lethal heart arrhythmias and heart failure offer faster telemetry and other improved features.

The Epic II ICD (implantable cardioverter defibrillator) and the Epic II HF CRT-D (cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillator) devices, made by St. Jude Medical (St. Paul, MN, USA), feature faster telemetry that speeds data from the ICD to the system programmer at a rate up to five times faster than previous St. Jude devices. A vibrating patient notifier in each device issues a vibration instead of an audio alert to notify patients of critical changes in device performance. Both devices have been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA).

Other features include SenseAbility, a technology designed to allow optimizing of sensing parameters that may protect against inappropriate ICD shocks; autointrinsic conduction search (AICS), intended to promote more natural heart function and minimize ventricular pacing; and DeFT (defibrillation thresholds) response technology to help physicians manage patients who require higher levels of defibrillation.

"I was impressed with the speed of the new Epic II ICD device. Many things were noticeably faster, like the ability to download stored electrograms,” said Senthil Natarajan, M.D., of Rochester General Hospital (NY, USA). "The vibrating patient notifier, which is the industry's first non-audio alert, is especially helpful for those patients who have difficulty hearing and would typically rely on a family member to listen for an alert.”

An implantable cardioverter defibrillator is used in patients at risk for recurrent, sustained ventricular tachycardia or fibrillation. Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT)--delivered by an ICD or a pacemaker--resynchronizes the beating of the heart's ventricles, which often beat out of sync in heart-failure patients..


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