NEWS
RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact: Bobbie Boyd, Director of Public Relations
& Community Outreach
Advanced Cardiac Specialists
Cell Phone: (602) 570-7069 E-mail:
bobbie.boyd@acs-im.com
NEWLY FDA APPROVED PACEMAKER/DEFIBRILLATOR TECHNOLOGY
TREATS ALL - NOT HALF OF THE HEART
Peace of Mind Now
Available for Arizonans
Phoenix (December 6,
2002) - Last month the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approved Biotronik’s
Tachos DR (dual chamber) Response, as an improvement on existing
pacemaker/defibrillators, the small implantable devices that provide electrical
stimulus to the heart in order to supply an adequate number of heart beats when
the body’s natural signals fail. The
new technology is now available to Arizonans with the first market released
procedure successfully completed today.
Existing
pacemaker/defibrillators have only been able to treat the ventricular, or
lower, chambers of the heart. When
there was a problem with the blood flow in the atrial, or upper chambers, of
the heart, the only treatment options were surgery (ablation) or drug
therapy. Neither of these alternatives
was able to immediately treat the problem.
Depending on the severity of the patient’s symptoms, he would schedule
an office visit or even go to the emergency room, if the situation became life
threatening.
The new device is able to
immediately detect an irregularity or even stoppage of heart beats in the upper
chambers of the heart; and, to immediately provide an electrical impulse to
restore normality and thus blood flow.
The patient is provided with the peace of mind that his whole heart is
being monitored and will be treated if needed.
The device was
successfully implanted in the first patient in the State of Arizona December 6,
2002 by Robert M. Siegel, M.D., Medical Director of Advanced Cardiac
Specialists. The manufacturer of this
new pacemaker, Biotronik, is a world leader in the cardiovascular devise
industry.