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The first implant in a new family of pacemaker products, which recently received CE Mark approval, was carried out at a hospital in Liverpool, UK.
The procedure was performed by Dr Mark Hall at The Cardiothoracic Centre, Liverpool NHS Trust, said the implant’s manufacturers, Boston Scientific Corporation.
The new pacemaker is designed to treat bradycardia, a condition in which the heart beats too slowly, usually less than 60 beats per minute, which can deprive the body of sufficient oxygen.
The pacemaker, called Altrua, offers features including multiple atrial ventricular delay programming options, designed to reduce unnecessary right ventricular pacing.
It also features a “multiple ventilation blended sensor”, which treats a chronotropic incompetence, which is where the heart cannot regulate its rate appropriately in response to physical activity and stress.
The pacemaker can also be set up to treat atrial fibrillation, stabilising the patient’s heart rhythm, and an “automatic capture” system checks every heartbeat to see if the appropriate pulse was delivered, responding with more energy in the next pulse if required.
“European approval and launch of Boston Scientific’s ALTRUA family of pacemakers is the latest example of the significant progress we have made rebuilding our cardiac rhythm management (CRM) organisation and reinvigorating our product pipeline,” said Fred Colen, Executive Vice President, Operations and Technology, CRM.
