Comment on: Safety and feasibility of hemodynamic pulmonary artery
pressure monitoring using the CardioMEMS device in LVAD management
Abstract
The called burden of cardiac heart failure (CHF) on healthcare systems
and economies remains large and a major factor contributing to this
burden is the high hospital admission rate for acute decompensated heart
failure. These repeated heart failure hospitalizations (HFH) not only
exert a high burden on healthcare systems, but also impact patient
quality of life and have been associated with impaired prognosis and
reduced life expectancy. The need for remote monitoring has become
extremely important, mainly based on devices capable of measuring
intracardiac filling pressures. If we assume that hemodynamic congestion
precedes clinical congestion, the hemodynamic monitoring could be able
to detect early signs of congestion and enables clinicians to intervene
in a pre-symptomatic phase avoiding hospital admission. Dr. Veenis JF
and colleagues present the results of implanting the CardioMEMS device
in 10 patients who underwent heartmate 3 implantation. The authors
describe the study design based on an earlier publication by the same
author. The authors argue that the use of this device will allow the
monitoring of patients pre, during hospitalization and after
implantation, with a possible reduction in the number of readmissions
for allowing the diagnosis and treatment of complications related to
ventricular failure and volume overload.