A clinical trial has launched at the Hammersmith Hospital in London, the trial is the first of its kind and involves a specialist device called a V-LAP device. It is hoped that the device could improve the quality of life for people living with heart failure.
The V-LAP device is manufactured by Vectorious a company in Israel, and is a wireless in- heart microcomputer which is implanted in the heart’s left atrium giving the earliest, most accurate data of the heart’s performance. The sensor does not have a battery, which means it could last for all of the patient’s life as it is charged remotely from outside the patient’s body feeding back data to doctors as it does so.
The device is currently only available to patients who enrol in a clinical trial, one of the recruiting centres for the study VECTOR-HF is Hammersmith Hospital in London. The trial will aim to recruit 30 patients with a diagnosis of ischemic or non-ischaemic cardiomyopathy and heart failure in 6 sites across the world. The procedure to implant the device is minimally invasive and lasts around an hour. Patients can return home the same day and can start to use the device immediately.
It is hoped that by providing regular data from the heart, rather than relying on patient reported symptoms, doctors will be able to improve treatment plans for individual patients and reduce the need for them to be admitted to hospital.
For further information about this clinical trial click here.