At the 2019 European Society Cardiology (ESC) congress (31 August – 4 September, Paris, France), Abiomed revealed that its Impella CP with SmartAssist technology is now commercially available in Europe. A press release reports that the system is designed to improve patient outcomes with advanced algorithms and simplified patient management. It adds that the majority of Impella CP heart pumps in Europe will be transitioned to SmartAssist over the next 12 months.
According to the press release, the new Impella CP heart pump features a fibre optic sensor that is optimally positioned to measure the placement signal in the aorta, identify pump placement and enable repositioning without the use of imaging. The advanced sensors also enable the calculation and display of additional physiological data on the Automated Impella Controller. These advances to the Impella forward-flow heart pump technologies and software are designed to improve ease-of-use and patient management to improve both survival and heart recovery:
Real-time displays of critical haemodynamic metrics indicative of left ventricular end-diastolic pressure (LVEDP), mean arterial pressure, and cardiac power output. The press release notes that the Impella CP with SmartAssist is the only mechanical circulatory support device that calculates and displays pressure signals indicative of LVEDP, mean arterial pressure, and cardiac power output
Karim Ibrahim (Klinikum Chemnitz) comments: “Impella CP with SmartAssist is fast and easy to set up and to manage. The positioning and repositioning of this device is extremely precise thanks to the signal of the optical pressure sensor, its measurement is very reliable. If you have a patient in cardiogenic shock, every minute counts to unload the left ventricle. CP SmartAssist is in this respect a tremendous technical innovation which can save essential time.”
After receiving the CE mark in 2016 and FDA approval in 2018, the SmartAssist platform has been thoroughly validated for this commercial roll out during a limited market release in Germany and the USA.
