New Device Alerts Heart Failure Patients of Fluid Build-Up and Worsening Symptoms

Contact: Robby Channell, 601-968-5135 rchannell@mbhs.org

Baptist Heart Services, a division of Mississippi Baptist Medical Center, has implanted a new biventricular pacing device to monitor fluid status in the thoracic cavity giving the patient early warning of fluid accumulation and worsening symptoms.

Jackson, Miss. - December 17, 2004 - Baptist Heart Services, a division of Mississippi Baptist Medical Center in Jackson, Miss., offers a new biventricular pacing device with the capability to monitor fluid status in the thoracic cavity. The device, Medtronic's InSync Sentry®, was approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in November 2004.

This device gives heart failure patients early indication of thoracic fluid accumulation that may signal future worsening of symptoms. Thoracic fluid measurement is made possible through the device's OptiVolT Fluid Status Monitoring, which measures changes in impedance. Using very low electrical pulses that travel across the thoracic cavity, the system can measure the level of resistance to the electrical pulses, which indicates the level of fluid in the thorax. The device can trend fluid status over time to provide important insights in conjunction with ongoing monitoring of other patient symptoms.

Cardiologist Robert Pickett, M.D. was the first to implant the Medtronic InSync Sentry™ cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) defibrillator system in Mississippi at Baptist on a 62 year-old man on December 13, 2004.

Medtronic noted the new implantable therapy is expected to provide a critical advantage in managing heart failure, since thoracic fluid accumulation is a primary indicator of worsening heart failure and often results in patient hospitalization.

"It is our hope that this device will help prevent hospitalizations and lessen patient symptoms making it easier for their physicians to treat congestive heart failure," said Dr. Pickett.

Heart failure afflicts 5 million Americans and is the number one cause of hospital admissions, with most of these admissions due to fluid accumulation in the thorax. This fluid buildup often goes undetected until the patient is critically ill, and it is not unusual for patients to require hospitalization or urgent treatment at an emergency room for severe respiratory distress. With approximately 1 million hospitalizations each year for heart failure at a cost of an estimated $40 billion annually, heart failure management is a tremendous cost burden to the country's healthcare system.

InSync Sentry will provide vital patient information to physicians who implant CRT defibrillator systems and also to physicians who manage the ongoing care of heart failure patients. In the future, physicians will be able to access data gathered by the InSync Sentry system using the Internet and through wireless transmissions that wouldn't require direct patient interaction.

InSync Sentry is an ideal therapy option for the 400,000 Americans with heart failure who have dysynchronous beating in the heart's lower chambers and low blood output that places them at risk for sudden cardiac arrest.

CRT resynchronizes the contractions of the heart's lower chambers by sending tiny electrical impulses to the heart muscle, which can help the heart pump blood throughout the body more efficiently and reduce heart failure symptoms. The system's defibrillation capability offers 35 joules of delivered energy to treat a potentially lethal heart rhythm, which is important for heart failure patients who may require more energy to terminate life-threatening arrhythmias.

For more information visit Baptist's website at www.mbhs.org or call the Baptist Health Line at (601) 948-626 or 1-800-948-6262.

:: Back to 2004 press releases