A project led by a Montreal researcher will try to determine whether an innovative use of a pacemaker could help some patients with heart failure.
In this case, the pacemaker is aligned directly with the heart’s natural electrical system, prompting it to beat in the most natural way possible.
'“You stimulate the natural contractions of the heart, you can produce a completely normal, synchronized contraction in the heart,” said Dr. Jacqueline Joza, who is a cardiac electrophysiologist with the McGill health network.
It is estimated that up to a quarter of patients who receive a pacemaker will go on to develop heart failure, which can have a significant impact on their quality of life.
Joza’s research project, which will initially involve around 200 patients and seven research centers, will try to determine whether this problem could be prevented from occurring, or at least reduced in frequency, by positioning the pacemaker a little differently.
With hundreds of thousands of people requiring a pacemaker to keep their heart functioning properly, this could have a major impact.
It’s not the first time doctors will attempt to install pacemakers in unusual ways to combat heart failure, but a clinical trial is needed to really measure the effectiveness of the procedure, Joza said.
“I can’t say 100 percent whether it’s better […] without doing a randomized trial with multiple patients,” she said, adding that the pacemaker must always be installed correctly so the data is not skewed.
An estimated 750,000 people in Canada live with heart failure, including about 170,000 in Quebec.
“Heart failure is one of the worst things," said Joza. “You feel constantly out of breath, you can’t do your regular activities, you can’t climb stairs [...] Even visits to the clinic become complicated. That’s why it’s so important to prevent heart failure.”
— This report was first published by The Canadian Press on Feb, 10, 2022.
