HeartLogic: A Way to Predict Heart Attacks Weeks in Advance

Heart disease is the number one cause of death for adults in the United States, but often people don’t realize they’re in danger. They may not even realize when they’ve had a heart attack, yet their heart is permanently damaged.

Roughly 805,000 Americans suffer heart attacks each year, and early intervention is key to preventing lifelong damage or death.

What Is HeartLogic?

HeartLogic is a device that doctors can use to monitor changes in their patients who are at risk for a heart attack. The implanted sensors allow for ongoing monitoring and the system sends an alert to the doctor if it senses something unusual that could indicate a potential upcoming heart attack.

The body provides a number of signals before a full heart attack, which is what HeartLogic strives to check for. It has a 70 percent sensitivity rate and is set up with a remote monitoring system so the patient may be at home and managing their life as usual. The system gives the patient and doctor extra time before heart failure to adjust medications and take more drastic approaches to prevent a coronary event.

The system gives an average of 34 days advance warning of impending heart failure, which means the potential outcome of the situation could be considerably better. It allows for measures to be taken long before the actual event occurs.

How HeartLogic Works

The HeartLogic medical device is made up of multiple sensors that track a variety of potential symptoms that could indicate heart failure is imminent. Since everyone is different and their body reacts differently, it’s necessary to track several different physiological trends in order to catch subtle changes. This information, when compiled, indicates the possibility of a heart attack. The medical device sends out an alert if it captures information that the AI determines is risky based on a series of factors.

The device monitors the following trends:

Heart Rate: The heart rate is measured during the hours of midnight to 6 a.m. to give a baseline resting heart rate. As most people are in bed during this time, it should be a good indication of their resting heart rate.

Physical Activity: How much exercise is the patient getting? This reading will give you an idea of how many hours a patient is moving around each day. It can also indicate fatigue, which may be key in diagnosing a potential problem.

Heart Sounds: As any clinician knows, a heart attack may be preceded by certain heart sounds. This sensor checks S3 and S1 heart sounds to determine elevated filling pressure and weakened ventricular contraction.

Thoracic Impedance: This uses electrodes to check the impedance between the two. This can indicate pulmonary edema or if there is any fluid accumulation in the thoracic cavity.

Respiration: Monitoring respiration is an important part of watching for potential heart problems and this trend will check for rapid shallow breathing and respiratory rate changes.

In addition, the device tracks several trends that are not used by the HeartLogic algorithm to give doctors a better idea of why certain symptoms may be showing. These include the angle at which the patient sleeps, the amount of time spent on atrial tachy response mode switch each day, as well as a summary of anti-tachycardia pacing and whether ATP or shock therapy was delivered. You can also use an external scale to measure the patient’s weight over time. If there is a left ventricular lead, the device will also track the percentage of cardiac beats paced with the lead. These are all options that may help you make a stronger diagnosis.

Who Can Use HeartLogic?

This medical device is meant for use on patients who are already showing high risk signs of coronary disease. If they’ve previously had a heart attack, this could help predict or even prevent a second one. Since 25 percent of patients return to the hospital within a month of having heart symptoms, the device allows doctors to monitor their high-risk patients without the need for constant follow-up.

Through the LATITUDE™ NXT Remote Patient Management System, the clinician may keep track of the patient’s symptoms and things like resting heart rate, weight, activity rate, and more. It will also provide alerts if there are issues that could indicate a heart attack may occur soon.

When the doctor receives a notice that their patient is in danger, they can call them in and either adjust medications or treatment, or they can perform more tests as necessary. The entire system is designed to be proactive and to aid the medical team in keeping their patient healthy and happy.

How HeartLogic May Improve Patient Outcomes

It’s been shown that a fast response to a heart attack can give the victim a better chance at survival and faster recovery. However, in most cases, the doctors are working from a disadvantage. The patient has already suffered coronary trauma and damage so they are limited in what measures may be taken.

By making it possible to anticipate a heart failure decompensation event and get ahead of it with treatments. This means the outlook is much better for the patient. It also gives both doctor and patient peace of mind, as they know that constant monitoring will help them anticipate an issue. The patient may return home and live their life normally while the physician monitors their progress remotely.

Science has made some pretty impressive leaps and bounds over the past few decades, and HeartLogic is one of the newer innovations that uses remote monitoring and implanted sensors to provide doctors with information on their patient. It’s a whole new world for medical interventions, and it could make all the difference in the overall outcome for your patients.

HeartLogic was developed by Boston Scientific and has had multiple studies run on it. These studies show the device is useful in predicting coronary events up to two months ahead of time, allowing doctors to take steps immediately to prevent the issue.

This medical device could be the wave of the future, working to ensure people survive longer and live healthier lives, thanks to early medical intervention. We can expect to see more devices like HeartLogic using implanted sensors soon as well.