Jan. 14, 2008

CONTACT:
Communications Department
(320) 251-2700, ext. 74980

Heart rhythm device implanted for the first time nationwide at Central Minnesota Heart Center

ST. CLOUD, Minn. –David Benditt, M.D., an electrophysiologist from the University of Minnesota was the first in the nation to implant an innovative cardiac monitoring device at the Central Minnesota Heart Center at St. Cloud Hospital.

The device, called the Medtronic Reveal® DX insertable cardiac monitor, is for patients with syncope (fainting) or abnormal heart rhythms. The Reveal DX device monitors patients with syncope 24 hours a day, every day for up to three years. The device offers continuous monitoring of the heart’s electrical activity in order to help physicians diagnose whether symptoms such as fainting, dizziness and unexplained seizure-like episodes have a cardiovascular cause. Recently receving FDA clearance, the first device was implanted in a 24-year-old woman Dec. 17.

“By their very nature, syncope and cardiac arrhythmias are unpredictable,” said Dr. Benditt. “The Reveal DX, which may help identify whether patients have an underlying cardiac condition causing these events, can aid in determining the appropriate treatment for these patients.”

Placed just under the skin of the chest area using local anesthesia during a simple outpatient procedure, the Reveal DX monitor records important cardiac rhythm data, which may help a physician to diagnose the patient so the appropriate treatment can be undertaken. The device weighs just 15 grams and is approximately the size of a memory stick; unlike a pacemaker or implantable cardioverter-defibrillator, there are no leads (tiny wires) that extend from the device into the heart’s chamber(s). To store an electrocardiogram (ECG) at the time of an episode, a patient places a hand-held, pager-sized activator over the device, and presses a button. Later, a physician analyzes the stored information and determines whether the episode was caused by an abnormal heart rhythm.

About Syncope and Arrhythmias
Causes of syncope, or unexplained, recurrent fainting, can be heart rhythm disturbances or abnormalities in the structure of the heart. Syncope can lead to serious injury or can be a precursor to sudden cardiac death. Approximately 1.5 million people worldwide suffer from unexplained syncope. In almost 10 percent of patients, syncope has a cardiac cause; in 50 percent, a non-cardiac cause; and in 40 percent of patients the cause of syncope is unknown. It is a leading cause of emergency room visits. Syncope is difficult to diagnose as syncopal episodes are often too infrequent and unpredictable for detection with conventional monitoring techniques.

Arrhythmias are simply irregular heart rhythms in the heart’s atria (upper chambers) or ventricles (lower chambers). They can be dangerously fast heart rhythms, known as tachycardia or tachyarrhyhmias; dangerously slow rhythms, known as bradycardia or bradyarrhythmias; fibrillation, where the heart quivers instead of pumping blood effectively to the body; or asystole, which is the absence of electromechanical activity within the heart.

Learn more about the Central Minnesota Heart Center.

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