Minnesota medtech titan St. Jude Medical (NYSE:STJ) made a strong showing in San Francisco today, touting outcomes of its quadripolar pacing leads at Heart Rhythm 2014, the Heart Rhythm Society’s 35th Annual Scientific Sessions.
For the 1st time, researchers found an 18.2% reduction in mortality for patients with quadripolar pacing when compared head-to-head with bipolar pacing, an important milestone for the technology. The results of the study were presented during a poster session at today’s conference.
"This comparative effectiveness study is an important advancement in our understanding of the real world impact of St. Jude Medical’s quadripolar technology," lead investigator Dr. Mintu Turakhia said in prepared remarks on behalf of St. Jude. "These data are the most compelling thus far as they demonstrate that the St. Jude Medical quadripolar lead is associated with a statistically significant improvement in survival."
Researchers examined data from nearly 23,200 patients in St. Jude’s registry, comparing survival rates in patients with the quadripolar leads to those with bipolar leads. The study found a 5.84% mortality rate among quadripolar patients, compared with a 7.14% mortality rate in the bipolar group.
Read more from Heart Rhythm 2014.
"These results indicate that patients with the quadripolar LV leads may receive more effective CRT," according to the poster abstract. "Potential mediators of the observed survival differences require further exploration."
St. Jude has several other sessions on the roster this week to highlight data about its quadripolar pacing systems, including the impact on hospitalization rates and cost analyses.
The company in March won FDA approval for its Allure Quadra system, the 1st device of its kind on the U.S. market to offer quadripolar cardiac resynchronization therapy.
The Allure Quadra device provides more pacing configurations that standard bipolar pacing, meaning fewer future surgeries to adjust lead placement should original configurations prove insufficient. The Allure line also features enhanced heart failure diagnostics and is equipped to ship data to St. Jude’s Merlin.net patient care network and to patients’ electronic health records. The Allure Quadra won CE Mark approval in the European Union a year ago.