Researchers at the University of Leicester have announced that the UK’s first operation to tackle heart failure (HF) with a novel nerve-stimulating device will be performed today (Thursday 23rd August 2012) at Glenfield Hospital.
The operation, which is part of a clinical trial called INOVATE-HF, could pave the way for a revolutionary treatment of a condition that scientists say has reached “epidemic proportions.”
INOVATE HF is a global investigational study to determine the safety and efficacy of the CardioFitÒ system, an implantable electrical stimulation device designed to improve heart function in patients with HF. The study will evaluate the system’s ability to reduce hospitalization and death among patients with HF, while also exploring whether combined treatment with CardioFit and prescription drug therapy is more effective than drug therapy alone.
The National Institute for Health Research Leicester Cardiovascular Biomedical Research Unit is the first site in the UK to enrol patients in INOVATE-HF. The study’s principal investigator at the site, and also the UK chief investigator, is Dr. André Ng, senior lecturer in cardiology at the University of Leicester and consultant cardiologist at Glenfield Hospital who carried out the world's first remote heart procedure using a robotic arm alongside 3-D mapping in 2010.
