Sympathetic Nerve Stimulation Treats Heart Failure

A new system for treating congestive heart failure (CHF) enables controlled electrical stimulation of the vagus nerve to achieve therapeutic results.

The CardioFit system includes an intracardiac electrogram (EGM) sensor implanted in the right ventricle of the heart, which continuously monitors the patient's heart rate. Optimal heart rate is then controlled via a tri-polar cuff electrode that provides accurate control of specific nerve fibers, avoiding cross-activation of undesired fibers. The device itself is placed in a subcutaneous pocket in the chest. The system has been successfully implanted in patients at UniversitätsKlinikum (Mannheim, Germany) and at Ospedali Riuniti di Bergamo (Italy), as part of an international, multi-center, open-label clinical study that includes medical centers in Europe, Israel, and Australia.

"I am pleased to report that we have implanted the first person in the BioControl study at Bergamo with the CardioFit device,” said Professor A. Gavazzi, principal investigator of the study at Bergamo. "The patient is 31 years old and suffers from familial dilated cardiomyopathy. The patient is resting comfortably and is in very good spirits after the procedure. This patient, like the others in this study, had been treated with optimal doses of conventional heart failure therapies, including high doses of beta blockers, was still symptomatic. Clearly, there is an unmet clinical need for effective treatments for this condition. We believe the CardioFit system has a high potential to fill this need.”

The CardioFit system is a product of BioControl (Yehud, Israel), which also develops other implantable devices for the treatment of a range of autonomic disorders--conditions whereby the autonomic nervous system ceases to function properly, resulting in a disruption to the control of involuntary body processes.


Related Links:
UniversitätsKlinikum
Ospedali Riuniti di Bergamo
BioControl