Advances in Cardiac Resynchronization and Implantable cardioverter/defibrillator Therapy: Medtronic Cobalt and Crome

Abstract

Cardiovascular implantable electronic devices have revolutionized the management of heart failure with reduced ejection fraction. New device generations tend to be launched every few years, with incremental improvements in performance and safety and with an expectation that these will improve patient management and outcomes while remaining cost-effective. As a result, today’s cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) and implantable cardioverter defibrillator devices are quite different from the pioneering but often bulky devices of the late 20th century. This review discusses new and improved features developed to target specific needs in managing heart failure patients, some of which are especially pertinent to the current worldwide healthcare situation, with focus on the latest generation of CRTs with defibrillator (CRT-Ds) and implantable cardioverter defibrillators from Medtronic.

Lay abstract Cardiac pacemaker devices, especially those that can retune the pumping function of the heart (known as resynchronization therapy) and those that provide shocks to restore a normal heart rhythm (known as implantable defibrillators) have revolutionized the management of heart failure over the last three decades and continue to improve in terms of their safety, effectiveness and battery life. This review discusses new and improved features developed to target specific needs in managing heart failure patients, specifically focusing on the latest generation of devices from Medtronic.

Keywords:

• cardiac resynchronization therapy
• heart failure
• implantable defibrillator
• optimized CRT delivery
• remote monitoring
• ventricular tachycardia

Supplementary data

To view the supplementary data that accompany this paper please visit the journal website at:www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.2217/fca-2020-0117

Financial & competing interests disclosure

KK Witte has received unconditional research funding from Medtronic to the University of Leeds for a PhD Fellowship program unrelated to this work and, of relevance to this work has acted as a consultant for Medtronic and as a speaker for Medtronic, Abbott and Microport. The authors have no other relevant affiliations or financial involvement with any organization or entity with a financial interest in or financial conflict with the subject matter or materials discussed in the manuscript apart from those disclosed.

No writing assistance was utilized in the production of this manuscript.

Company review disclosure

In addition to the peer-review process, with the author’s consent, the manufacturer of the product discussed in this article was given the opportunity to review the manuscript for factual accuracy. Changes were made by the author at their discretion and based on scientific or editorial merit only. The author maintained full control over the manuscript, including content, wording and conclusions.