BIOTRONIK SE & Co. KG, a company specializing in cardiac medical devices, has declared that it is planning to launch the new, innovative Lumax 540 VR-TDX, a single chamber implantable cardiac defibrillator (ICD), along with Linox SDX cardiac lead system, at the EHRA EUROPACE electrophysiology congress. The event will be held in Madrid, Spain.
The Lumax DX system is a unique system capable of expanding the diagnostic capacities of the standard single-chamber ICD, with the help of advanced discrimination algorithms and special atrial sensors. The device also takes care of the needs for cardiac device patients who would need the single chamber ICD. As a rule, single chamber ICDs are built only for sensing changes in ventricular rhythm and are not in a position to correctly sense atrial fibrillation (AF). This condition would increase the risk of patient having a stroke or inappropriate shocks.
According to Dr. Alexander Schirdewan, from the Charité University Hospital situated in Campus Benjamin Franklin, Berlin, Germany, a number of studies have revealed that there is a 25% lifetime risk of developing AF in people aged 40 or more. Moreover, it has been seen that, among pacemaker and ICD patients, over 13% have a previously unidentified AF. He further stated that of all the shocks which attack ICD patients, 76% were the result of ICD misinterpreting the rapid atrial arrhythmias as ventricular events. These risks could be avoided by making use of the Lumax DX system along with the BIOTRONIK Home Monitoring system. These devices would detect atrial arrhythmias appropriately and thus enable the intervention of physicians.
The Linox S DX ICD lead’s floating atrial dipole could sense the signals coming from the atrial chambers of the patient’s heart. They are then amplified by the Lumax 540 VR-T DX device’s modified atrial input stage. Unique protection is provided to the single chamber ICD patients by the complementary atrial information, which would make sure that sensing takes place accurately.
Other major advantages of the Lumax DX system are improved arrhythmia diagnosis, safe shock reduction and optimized AF management.