CHICAGO, April 5 (UPI) -- A device that detects fluid in the lungs helped reduce heart failure deaths by nearly two-thirds and death from any cause by more than one-third, according to a study in Israel.
Patients whose lungs were assessed regularly using the Edema Guard Monitor in a two-year trial had a significantly reduced risk of dying because doctors detected pulmonary congestion early enough to prevent hospitalization and death, researchers reported at the American College of Cardiology's annual conference in Chicago.
Heart failure is a chronic condition caused by the heart's inability to pump blood properly, which often leads to the buildup of fluid in the lungs and other organs. Detecting fluid in the lungs early could allow doctors to intervene earlier and prevent hospitalization or death, researchers say.
The Edema Guard Monitor, designed by RM Medical Monitoring, detects fluid in the lungs using an electrical current -- lungs filled with air are highly resistant to the current, while those filled with fluid are less resistant.
Generally, chest X-rays and computed tomography, or CT, scans are used to monitor fluid in the lungs of heart failure patients, though these can be time-consuming and are expensive. Researchers say the benefit of the RM's device is its non-invasive nature, and the hope that it can enable patients to self-monitor their lungs at home.
"By the time a patient shows clinical signs of pulmonary congestion, the condition is already at an advanced stage," Dr. Michael Shochat, a researcher at Hillel Yaffe Heart Institute, said in a press release. "Many patients need emergency hospitalization and have a high probability of sustaining irreversible damage to the heart and lungs. In this study, patients who used the Edema Guard Monitor started taking medication well before pulmonary congestion reached an advanced stage."
For the study, published in the Journal of Cardiac Failure, researchers recruited 256 patients at two medical centers with chronic heart failure and a left ventricle pumping blood at 35 percent of normal capacity admitted to the hospital within the year before the study. The patients were randomized to be monitored with the Edema Guard Monitor or using standard methods for an average of 48 months.
Patients monitored with the device had 58 percent fewer hospitalizations than the standard group due to heart failure during the first 12 months of the study, and hospitalizations declined among the device group by 56 percent during the entire four-year study.
During the study, deaths from heart failure among the device group decreased by 62 percent and deaths by any cause dropped by 39 percent when compared to the standard group.
The study did not consider patients with less severe heart failure, but an ongoing trial of patients with less severe heart failure is expected to finish in 2019, with the long-term goal of allowing patients to self-monitor and seek treatment when appropriate.
"This study shows for the first time that a noninvasive lung impedance monitor can be used to detect pulmonary congestion in its earliest stages and that adequate medical treatment at that early stage can significantly reduce both hospitalizations and mortality," Shochat said.
