Brisbane hospital joins global heart trial

Greenslopes Private
Hospital is the first in the southern hemisphere to use a new heart
device which aims to cut stroke risk, as part of a new international
clinical trial.

The trial is
investigating whether the tiny implantable plug is a viable
alternative to blood-thinning drugs, which are the traditional
post-surgery treatment for heart patients.

Blood thinners such as
Warfarin help prevent harmful clots from travelling through
an artery to the brain and causing a stroke, but two percent of
patients experience bleeding complications and some cannot take the
medication.

"The
blood-thinning treatment is life-long; unfortunately the risk of
bleeding gets higher as the patients age," Greenslopes Private
Hospital cardiologist and cardiac electrophysiologist Dr Karen
Phillips said.

The Brisbane-based
facility is one of two in Australia taking part in the 18-month
global OPTION trial, which runs until 2021 and aims to recruit 1,600
patients.

Greenslopes has already enrolled over a dozen patients and performed its first procedures implanting the WATCHMAN FLX device, which Dr Phillips described as "a tiny plug that sits inside the heart and seals off where the blood clots potentially form".

"We're
the first in the southern hemisphere using this particular atrial
fibrillation device, which is a big feather in our cap.

"At
the moment the treatment is reactive – you wait until someone
bleeds from the blood-thinning medication before offering the
alternative treatment. This trial gives us an opportunity to perform
both procedures at once," Dr Phillips said.

The
trial is for cardiac patients with non-valvular atrial fibrillation
who undergo an ablation procedure to treat the poor bloodflow,
shortness of breath, fatigue and stroke-risk caused by this type of
abnormal heart rhythm.

Half the trial patients will be asked to take blood thinners and the other half will have a new iteration of the device, which closes the left atrial appendage of the heart. It is currently only available in Australia to people who cannot take blood-thinning medication.

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Read more: Newer drug beats Warfarin in heart trial

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