CRT pacemaker receives CE mark

St. Jude Medical announced that it has received a CE mark for a new cardiac resynchronization therapy pacemaker for use in patients with HF.

The Quadra Allure MP CRT pacemaker is intended for use with the Quartet LV lead and incorporates St. Jude Medical’s MultiPoint Pacing technology. This allows physicians to program the delivery of two pulses at different locations per pacing cycle, and is intended to offer more options for pacing optimization and reduce the rate of nonresponse to therapy and the need for follow-up intervention procedures, according to a press release.

The CE mark follows results from a study presented at the 2014 International Symposium on Progress in Clinical Pacing in Rome, which demonstrated a 19% improvement in therapy response rates with MultiPoint Pacing at 12 months compared with traditional CRT. Researchers also observed improvements in left ventricular function among patients who were already responsive to CRT, according to the release.

Francesco Zanon

“From our initial experience, we think MultiPoint Pacing improves cardiac function, resulting in better resynchronization and could be a further advantage of CRT,” Francesco Zanon, MD, FESC, FHRS, director of the electrophysiology unit, department of cardiology, Santa Maria della Misericordia Hospital in Rovigo, Italy, stated in the release. “We observed significant improvement over traditional CRT pacing, and therefore believe this technology could have wide application because it is accessible for all CRT implanters.”

The Quadra Allure MP device is not commercially available in the United States.