In short
Not Biotronik again! It seems that the German cardiac technologists are never out of the news, which suggests they are among the industry’s top movers and shakers at least in implantable cardiac defibrillator(ICD) development. Only last week we were talking about their new MRI compatible Evia CRT Cardiac resynchronisation device here. Now the company has announced the first Asian implantation of the its similarly MRI compatible Lumax 740 ICD in Hong Kong.
Background
Worldwide, the population of patients who need an ICD is growing at a rate of about 10–15 percent annually. At the same time, the need for MR scans is also increasing at a rate of about 10 percent each year. Approximately 30 million scans were performed in 2006, and in 2010 there were already about 50 million MR scans conducted worldwide. The soaring rates of patients needing ICDs and the increasing need for MR scans result in an estimated 50–75 percent probability that an ICD patient would be indicated for an MR scan over the lifetime of his or her implanted device.
Lumax 740 is the world’s first and only ICD and CRT-D series approved for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI), now giving ICD and CRT-D patients access to vital MR scans with Biotronik’s innovative ProMRI® technology. This combined with the product’s extended device longevity and Biotronik Home Monitoring®, brings the Lumax 740 series to the forefront of cardiac devices for patients with tachyarrhythmias.
The new Lumax 740 series is part of Biotronik’s technologically advanced tachycardia product portfolio, which includes three ICDs, one CRT-D device and 16 leads. The Linoxsmart ICD leads have been proven over time to be of the highest quality and reliability, and are now further enhanced with ProMRI®. Besides featuring ProMRI® technology, the devices also stand out in the industry by providing longevities of up to 11 years.
After the international launch on April 17th 2012, the first device implantation of a Lumax 740 ICD in Asia was successfully performed by Dr. Jeffrey Wing-Hong Fung.
Clinician comments
“Biotronik’s ProMRI® innovation in the Lumax 740 series is an important breakthrough for patients needing ICDs,” says Dr. Jeffrey Wing-Hong Fung, Director of Electrophysiology Laboratory at Hong Kong Adventist Hospital.
“I am glad that BIOTRONIK’s ProMRI® innovation in the Lumax 740 series is finally available to patients in Hong Kong and that ICD patients can now benefit from this technology,” said Dr. Fung. “Until now, patients with an ICD had been excluded from undergoing MR scans despite the fact that these scans are critical for the diagnosis and therapy of patients with serious medical conditions, such as cancer, stroke and other neurologic and orthopaedic conditions.”
Company comments
“Biotronik has a strong strategic commitment to bring innovative products of the highest quality and reliability to the Asia Pacific market and to build a powerful market leadership in the region,” commented Christoph Böhmer, Managing Director. “With the opening of our new regional headquarters in Singapore in January 2012, Biotronik will fully leverage the accelerated development of the Asia Pacific countries to further propel the industry-leading growth trajectory that the company has maintained during previous years,” he continued.
Source: Biotronik
published: May 4, 2012 in: Biotronik, Cardio, Launches / Withdrawals, News