Heart Failure: 1st Uk treatment with novel nerve stimulator!!

Researchers at the University of Leicester have announced that the UK's first operation to tackle heart failure (HF) with a novel nerve-stimulating device will be performed August 23 at Glenfield Hospital.

The operation, which is part of a clinical trial called INOVATE-HF, could pave the way for a revolutionary treatment of a condition that scientists say has reached "epidemic proportions."

INOVATE HF is a global investigational study to determine the safety and efficacy of the CardioFit system, an implantable electrical stimulation device designed to improve heart function in patients with HF. The study will evaluate the system's ability to reduce hospitalization and death among patients with HF, while also exploring whether combined treatment with CardioFit and prescription drug therapy is more effective than drug therapy alone.

Dr. André Ng,  a senior lecturer in cardiology at the University of Leicester and consultant cardiologist at Glenfield Hospital who carried out the world's first remote heart procedure using a robotic arm alongside 3-D mapping in 2010, is the study's principal investigator at the site, and also the UK chief investigator at the National Institute for Health Research Leicester Cardiovascular Biomedical Research Unit. It is the first site in the UK to enrol patients in INOVATE-HF.

 

Heart failure is a common condition in which the heart's pumping function is compromised, leading to a cascade of limiting symptoms and poor overall body function.

In patients with HF, the nervous system is out of balance. This imbalance leads to added stress on the heart and progressive deterioration of cardiovascular function. The CardioFit system is intended to restore balance by activating a specific part of the nervous system (called the "parasympathetic" nervous system) to reduce stress on the heart, thereby alleviating HF symptoms and reversing HF deterioration. It operates by stimulating the vagus nerve on the right side of the neck.
"This is a potentially ground-breaking treatment for desperate patients with HF, a serious condition that has increased over the past years in epidemic proportions," Dr. Ng said