Submitted by Corey Schubert, Banner Health.
Banner Heart Hospital is part of a research study for a new technology to reduce hospitalization and death for patients with heart failure.
The clinical trial tests the safety and effectiveness of CardioFit. The investigational medical device is designed to use the stimulation of a specific nerve to treat patients with heart failure. CardioFit is implanted under the skin of the chest, and delivers low-current electrical pulses to the vagal nerve, a specialized nerve in the brain that helps control heart rate and blood pressure.
"The positive impact of a device that could reduce symptoms and hospital visits for heart-failure patients could be huge, especially considering that about 5.1 million people in the United States have heart failure," said Dr. Alphonse Ambrosia, cardiologist and lead investigator of the study at Banner Heart Hospital.
Previous studies of this type of nerve stimulation suggest a benefit for heart-failure patients, and this study is designed to confirm these early findings with more patients.
Heart failure results from the added stress of health conditions that either damage the heart or make it work too hard. Lifestyle factors that increase the risk include smoking, being overweight, eating foods high in fat and cholesterol, and physical inactivity. More causes of heart failure include hypertension, or high blood pressure, and plaque buildup along the artery walls inside the heart.
Banner Heart Hospital is at 6750 E. Baywood Ave., Mesa.