There is good scientific news for people who have survived a heart attack: A small, implantable monitor under the skin in patients who have had a heart attack detects early signs of dangerous complications, the Medical University of Innsbruck informed on Wednesday. A study has shown that the implant is clearly superior to conventional aftercare, it said.
The study was led by Axel Bauer, Director of the University Clinic for Internal Medicine III at Med Uni Innsbruck, in 33 heart centers in Germany and Austria. The journal Lancet Digital Health published the research.
The telemedicine procedure obviously has significant advantages: According to the researchers, the implantable device – a tiny heart monitor – detected severe, mostly asymptomatic rhythm events in 60 of 201 patients within 21 months. On the other hand, only twelve such events could be detected in the control group, which consisted of 199 heart attack patients without telemonitoring, within the scope of the usual follow-up care in the same period. “The core message is that the monitor detects dangerous but asymptomatic rhythm events very sensitively, which in turn are harbingers of serious clinical events. Serious problems can thus be detected much earlier and high-risk patients can be better treated in the future,” explained Bauer.
According to the expert, the monitor is of particular importance for the large group of people affected with an average pumping capacity, for whom there are currently no specific preventive measures. The heart monitor is “as small as a fingernail”. It is a passive device that continuously records electrical information from the heart over several years. Dangerous arrhythmias would be recognized automatically and telemetrically transmitted to a center.
The research work is not enough: Future studies must now clarify to what extent this telemedicine strategy can also improve the prognosis of those affected in the long term.