It’s been part of Bill Keiss daily routine for nearly a year.
“I get up in the morning and I take all my vitals,” Keiss, 71, said.
Suffering from congestive heart failure, Keiss is able to monitor his pulmonary artery pressure daily, right in the home office of his Mount Greenwood home by using the Cordella HF Sensor System from Naperville-based Endotronix.
“I haven't been in the hospital, you know, since it's since it’s been implanted,” Keiss said.
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The implant is a small pressure sensor that is surgically placed in a patient’s pulmonary artery.
“We can detect very early rises in that pressure, which we usually average over, you know, a three to five day period, and if they continue to rise, we can act on it before patients have symptoms or even before they get sick,” said Dr Greg Macaluso, a heart failure transplant cardiologist with Heart Care Centers of Illinois.
While pressure monitoring isn’t new, Dr. Macaluso and his partners at Heart Care Centers of Illinois are working with Endotronix to conduct clinical trials for this new sensor, part of the Cordella HF Sensor System.
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“This is a new, newer device that allows us to have just kind of the newer, better, faster technology,” Macaluso said.
With this system, patients can take their readings sitting upright. It also collects other metrics too, including blood pressure, oxygen saturation and weight with a Bluetooth scale. All the results then appear on a small tablet, alerting patients, including Keiss, to any abormal readings or trends.
“I know when I don't feel good or my weight goes up, I need to take an extra half a water pill like they told me,” Keiss said. “It gives me total control. There's no question about it.”
By the end of this month, cardiologists nationwide will have implanted 450 Cordella sensors. The next step is for Endotronix to submit the data for FDA approval, which a company spokesperson says they hope to have in 12 to 18 months.
“Looking at two year outcomes, people are actually living longer with this treatment. So we're really excited about that, that new data,” Macaluso said. “We're really glad that it's a local company, too, that we can help, you know, showcase and help, also, to just make patients better in our community.”
Keiss says his pressure readings have improved since he started the daily monitoring. The retired father and grandfather called the technology life-changing.
“It’s not like it's cured me. It’s just giving me control. And that's, that's big,” Keiss said.
