NASA-DEVELOPED IMPLANTABLE CARDIAC defibrillator
saved so many lives that a recent National Institutes of Health (NIH) clinical
trial comparing it to antiarrhythmic drug treatment was stopped early.
Volume 5, Number 4 July/August 1997
Technology Transfer
NASA-DEVELOPED IMPLANTABLE CARDIAC defibrillator
saved so many lives that a recent National Institutes of Health (NIH) clinical
trial comparing it to antiarrhythmic drug treatment was stopped early.
The National Heart, Lung and Blood Institute (NHLBI) of NIH stopped a study of two treatment strategies for patients with life-threatening heart arrhythmias: the implantable cardiac defibrillator versus antiarrhythmic drug treatment. NHLBI stopped the study early because deaths among the group of patients treated for arrhythmia (abnormal hearth rhythm) with the defibrillator decreased significantly.
"The implantable cardiac defibrillator is like having an emergency room implanted in your chest," said Dr. Douglas Zipes, distinguished professor of medicine and chief of cardiology at Indiana University School of Medicine. Zipes was responsible for scientific conduct of the study.
| The success of a NASA-developed implantable cardiac defibrillator was so significant a clinical trial comparing it to other treatment options was stopped early. |  |
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NHLBI Director Dr. Claude Lenfant said more than 1,000 lives would be saved each year in the U.S. alone if the results of the study were applied to the population at risk. "This landmark study is the first large controlled study to show that implantable cardiac defibrillators improve overall survival in patients with serious ventricular arrhythmias," Lenfant said. "We've known for some time that these devices stop arrhythmias and restore normal heart rhythm, but it has not been known — until now — whether they improve overall survival."
In the late 1970s through the 1980s, Goddard Space Flight Center was a major player in development of the first implantable defibrillator to win FDA approval. The Automatic Implantable Cardioverter Defibrillator or AICD™ was manufactured by Cardiac Pacemakers Inc., an Eli Lilly and Company subsidiary, and incorporates space-based miniaturized electronics to detect a broad range of spontaneous heart arrhythmias.
Other NASA technologies contributing to the defibrillator device include computer modeling and quality/control techniques. NASA also funded development of an AICD™ recording system and an independent design review of the system conducted by the Applied Physics Laboratory of Johns Hopkins University. This system was first implanted in a human on February 4, 1980.
The implantable cardioverter defibrillator's success in the treatment of life-threatening arrhythmias is another example of how NASA's Commercial Technology Network has contributed significantly to advances in biomedicine.
For more information, contact Nona Minnifield at Goddard Space Flight Center.
Call 301/286-5810
Fax: 301/286-0301
Please mention you read about it in Innovation.
