More-Responsive Pacemaker Technology

New technology called Closed Loop Stimulation (CLS) enables pacemakers to monitor changes in cardiac contractility and respond not only to exercise but to many other daily activities, including a variety of non-exercise stressors. CLS has been cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA), based on the results of a multicenter clinical investigation evaluating its rate-adaptive performance in a dual-chamber pacemaker.

CLS provides pacemaker patients with heart-rate adaptation based on their own cardiovascular control. Changes in the pacing rate of current pacemakers are triggered only by body motion and respiration during exercise. However, a healthy heart also responds to emotion, illness, and the body's natural rhythms. Multiple international studies suggest that CLS responds to these as well as to exercise. CLS was developed by Biotronik Inc. (Berlin, Germany).

Biotronik has also developed a new pacemaker capable of remote, real-time monitoring, using phone signals to beam information from the pacemaker to the doctor's office. A monitoring system allows the pacemaker to be customized to automatically transmit a detailed cardiac report to a doctor's office on a daily or weekly basis.




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