Sep 14 2010
BIOTRONIK, a leading provider of implantable cardiac devices (ICD) and other sophisticated remote monitoring solutions, has declared that the outcome of the TRUST Trial (Lumax-T/Lumos-T Safely Reduces Routine Office Device Follow-up) have been made available online.
It will be also included in the October 13, 2010 issue of Circulation Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology and the publication title will be, “Automatic Remote Monitoring of ICD Lead and Generator Performance: The TRUST Trial,” explaining the major advantages of BIOTRONIK Home Monitoring for autonomous early recognition of ICD generator and lead functions. This product can also detect abnormal heart rhythms that do not show any symptoms.
BIOTRONIK Home Monitoring is the only commercially obtainable monitoring system which is authorized by FDA and CE. It provides completely automated, uninterrupted, portable and wire-free monitoring without patient interference. Whenever a clinically critical issue like an irregular heart beat arises, a warning message containing the decision-crucial data, for instance high-definition intracardiac electrocardiograms, will be transmitted to a safe internet linked system which can be retrieved by the physician from any place with the help of a computer with internet connectivity.
Dr. Niraj Varma, Cardiac Pacing & Electrophysiology, Department of Cardiovascular Medicine, Cleveland Clinic and TRUST National Principal Investigator, has stated that an efficient method of examining the working of ICDs has been insisted by both doctors performing the implantation and the patients. He added that from the TRUST Trial it was deduced that the automated remote surveillence offered an effective and meticulous monitoring. He added that this method was found to be highly advanced when compared to the traditional hospital check ups. This method also enabled the physicians to intervene on time to perform various essential processes like replacing an element or to alter the coding or cardiac prescription as per the requirements, thereby ensuring the wellbeing of the patients and also in offering assurance for both doctors and cardiac patients.
The TRUST was started by a group of US electrophysiologists and is the first randomized cardiac management study to explain the diagnosis of symptomatic and asymptomatic arrhythmias by using remote monitoring. Around 102 North American sites feature TRUST with 1450 cardiac patients as members.
Dr. Andrew E. Epstein, Professor of Medicine at the University of Pennsylvania and Chief, Cardiology Section, Philadelphia VA Medical Center has stated that though ICD lead and generator failure cases are not common, daily scrutinizing the ICD performance can help in identifying and alerting the doctors for immediate medical intervention. He added that BIOTRONIK Home Monitoring not only utilizes isolated information, but also the trends for the evaluation of the functioning of the ICD system, thereby improving the life of the cancer patients by reducing the occurrence of cardiac problems.
According to Kevin Mitchell, BIOTRONIK Vice President, Clinical Studies, the publication in Circulation Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology has revealed the benefits of Home Monitoring by assessing the huge information set acquired during the TRUST study. He added that their publication committee will work on introducing several new publications based on this data-set. He also said that their company will also support highly demanding and technologically valid clinical experiments, thereby helping their physician associates for providing better patient care.
Source: http:// www.biotronik.com