A heart valve "clip" is promising for patients with heart failure

Heart failure affects about 5.7 million Americans and more than 26 million people worldwide, causing shortness of breath and fatigue in people with heart disease because their hearts are struggling to pump blood into the heart. the body.

Estimated to more than two million people in the United States, mitral valve insufficiency causes backward blood flow, meaning it can not effectively reach the rest of the body.

Medications are available to relieve the symptoms of a mitral valve leak, but the authors claim that the long-term effects are unknown. Surgery is also an option and can be curative, but presents a significant risk of complications because patients are often older and more fragile.

According to the study, the implantation of MitraClip is minimally invasive, the device being transferred upwards by a small incision in the groin.

To measure the effectiveness of the device, Dr. Greg Stone, professor of medicine at Columbia University College of Physicians, and his team recruited 614 patients from the United States and Canada with heart failure and moderate to severe secondary mitral regurgitation . valve – which continued to have symptoms despite the drug treatment of his condition. The secondary form of the condition is when a person's left ventricle is damaged, preventing the valve from functioning properly.

Of the participants, 302 received the new device and 312 acted as controls. Among those who received MitraClip, there was 32.1% fewer hospitalizations per year over the years of follow-up.

"The annualized rate of all hospitalizations for heart failure in 24 months was 35.8% per patient-year in the device group versus 67.9% per patient-year in the control group," the authors write.

Overall mortality for all causes in both years was also 17% lower in patients implanted with the device compared to the control group, with 29.1% and 46.1% respectively.

Its use for treating the secondary form of the disease is currently under study and has not yet been approved by the FDA.

The new study was part of the COAPT trial for secondary mitral regurgitation and funded by the American health care company Abbott, which produces the device.