St. Jude Medical has received the U.S. and EU approval for its ShockGuard technology, which can be used with the Unify cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillators and Fortify implantable cardioverter. It is designed to reduce unnecessary shocks for patients with these devices, the company says in a statement.
The Unify CRT-D and Fortify ICD with ShockGuard technology features DecisionTx programming that discriminates between rhythms that require defibrillation therapy and those that do not. A retrospective analysis of the Advancements in ICD Therapy registry, which enrolled more than 5,000 patients, demonstrated that at the end of one year, 98.5 percent of patients with DecisionTx programming would be free of inappropriate shocks.
"The St. Jude Medical ShockGuard technology has been demonstrated to reduce inappropriate defibrillation therapy, while still ensuring that patients will receive the treatment needed for life-threatening ventricular arrhythmias," explains Thomas Deering of the Piedmont Heart Institute in Atlanta, GA, in the statement. "This technology was based on real world data and analysis representing actual patient populations who receive implantable cardiac defibrillators."
As the Star Tribune notes, the technology represents a new trend in med-tech. Last month, rival Medtronic said the FDA approved its Protecta ICD, which also reduces unneeded shocks.
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- see the Star Tribune report