The 11th International Dead Sea Symposium (IDSS) on Cardiac Arrhythmias and Device Therapy took place in Jerusalem (Israel) on February 26-29, 2012. This event is one of the biggest events to focus on arrhythmology in the Middle East. It is a prestigious platform for professional development and networking in the field of cardiology.
This year, Cardiac Contractility Modulation (CCM™) was presented in two important presentations.
Dr. Randy Lieberman of Harper University Hospital, Detroit, Michigan, one of the investigators in the large FIX-HF-5 study in the US, presented “Contractility Modulation as a New Approach for CHF Therapy”, giving an up-to-date overview of the mechanism of action and international clinical experience with CCM.
Following his presentation, Dr. Lieberman said that, “CCM is as effective in CHF patients without wide QRS as Cardiac Resynchronization Therapy (CRT) in wide QRS patients, and is easier and less complicated to implant and follow-up. Given the large number of patients, for whom CRT is not an option, CCM needs to be rapidly available throughout the world to improve patients’ quality of life and reduce the worldwide cost of managing CHF.”
In the second presentation on Cardiac Contractility Modulation, Dr. Offir Paz, from Kaplan Medical Center, Rehovot, Israel, presented “The Effects of CCM Pacing on Clinical, Echocardiogram & Biomarkers Measurements in Patients with Advanced Heart Failure”. His presentation summarized the experience gained with CCM in the Kaplan Medical Center during 2011.
“Pre-clinical and clinical data show that CCM therapy has a beneficial effect on symptomatic heart failure patients.”, said Dr. Paz. “We, at Kaplan Medical Center, are proud to be the first hospital in Israel to implant the Optimizer III system in symptomatic heart failure patients on optimal medical treatment. So far, we have five patients that successfully completed the procedure and enjoy improvement in quality of life. CCM seems to be the only available device therapy today to Heart Failure patients with narrow QRS or to those who did not respond to CRT, and we plan to expand the use of CCM for our patients.”
What is CCM?
Cardiac Contractility Modulation (CCM™) is a unique and innovative method for treating patients with moderate-to-severe chronic heart failure (CHF) that are symptomatic despite optimal medical therapy. CCM signals are non-excitatory electric pulses delivered by the Optimizer™ III implantable device during a specific period of the heart cycle called the absolute refractory period. Research has shown that CCM therapy significantly improve the heart’s contractility by normalizing the function and expression of key regulatory proteins in the heart muscle. Studies in both canine and human subjects have demonstrated that CCM therapy improves both global and regional LV contractility, including regions remote from the signal delivery, and may contribute to LV reverse remodeling and gain in systolic function.
The Optimizer III has been implanted in more than 1000 patients, and has been shown to significantly improve exercise tolerance and quality of life in implanted patients.
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