Peer-review started: July 14, 2016
First decision: September 12, 2016
Revised: September 18, 2016
Accepted: November 16, 2016
Article in press: November 17, 2016
Published online: January 26, 2017
Heart failure (HF) is an emerging epidemic associate with significant morbidity, mortality, and health care expenditure. Although there were major advances in pharmacologic and device based therapies for the management of HF, mortality of this condition remains high. Accurate monitoring of HF patients for exacerbations is very important to reduce recurrent hospitalizations and its associated complications. With the failure of clinical signs, tele-monitoring, and laboratory bio-markers to function as early markers of HF exacerbations, more sophisticated techniques were sought to accurately predict the circulatory status in HF patients in order to execute timely pharmacological intervention to reduce frequent hospitalizations. CardioMEMSTM (St. Jude Medical, Inc., Saint Paul, Minnesota) is an implantable, wireless pulmonary arterial pressure (PAP) monitoring system which transmits the patient’s continuous PAPs to the treating health care provider in the ambulatory setting. PAP-guided medical therapy modification has been shown to significantly reduce HF-related hospitalization and overall mortality. In advanced stages of HF, wireless access to hemodynamic information correlated with earlier left ventricular assist device implantation and shorter time to heart transplantation.
Core tip: Traditional heart failure monitoring methods have failed to accurately and timely identify worsening heart failure. Remote pulmonary artery pressure monitoring via CardioMEMSTM heart failure system identified heart failure exacerbations earlier and more accurately than clinical signs, and timely medical interventions resulted in reduced hospitalizations and mortality. Remote pulmonary artery pressure monitoring appears to have positive clinical implications in patients with mechanical circulatory support.