Evaluating an implantable device for early recognition of a heart attack

The aim of this study was to examine how effective a new implantable device is in recognizing and alerting patients that they are having a heart attack. The main finding of the study was that the device successfully detected heart attacks and alerted patients of a potential blockage of their blood vessels.

Heart disease is one of the biggest causes of death worldwide. Symptoms of a heart attack can often be vague such as nausea, sweating, dull chest pain. In fact, some patients may not have any symptoms at all. This poses a problem because early treatment is key to limit damage to the heart tissue. Heart attacks are caused by blockages to the blood vessels of the heart. This results in death of heart tissue. The less damage to the heart tissue, the better the heart will continue to pump. Therefore, early treatment to allow blood flow to return to the heart tissue will limit damage to the heart muscle.

AngelMed Guardian system is a heart monitoring and alerting system developed to recognize heart attacks early on. The device is implanted under the skin of the chest for patients who are at a high risk of a heart attack. The device also has an external part that alerts the patient when they may be having a heart attack. The effectiveness of the device to successfully detect heart and attacks and alert patients is under investigation.

This study included 907 patients that were at a high risk for heart attacks. These patients all had the AngelMed Guardian system implanted into their chest. However, patients were randomly assigned to either have their alarm system turned on or alarm system turned off for 6 months.

96.7% of patients had no complications related to the AngelMed Guardian system. There was no difference in the rate of a confirmed blood vessel blockage within 7 days in the patients with their alarm system turned on compared to those with whose alarm system was turned off. Within 90 days, patients who had their alarm systems turned on had a significantly shorter time between when a blood vessel blockage was detected and arrival at the hospital (51 minutes vs 30.6 hours). 

The authors concluded that the implantable system detected early heart attacks and alerted patients of a potential blood vessel blockage.

This study was funded by Anel Medical Systems, the developer of AngelMed Guardian system.