TOPLINE:

Remote pulmonary artery pressure monitoring with a wireless implantable device, the CardioMEMS Heart Failure System, demonstrated reliable safety in patients with advanced heart failure (HF), with almost no device-related complications, and was associated with a substantial reduction in the risk for HF-related hospitalisations after implantation.

METHODOLOGY:

• Researchers conducted a prospective, open-label post-market study (COAST) to evaluate whether remote monitoring of pulmonary artery pressure with an implanted sensor (CardioMEMS) was feasible, safe, and effective in routine care of patients with HF.
• They included 304 patients with HF classified as New York Heart Association (NYHA) class III who had at least one HF-related hospitalisation in the prior 12 months across multiple centres in Europe and Australia between July 2016 and December 2021.
• During right heart catheterisation, clinicians successfully placed the sensor in 299 patients (98.3% implant success). Patients were trained to use a handheld unit to transmit daily pressure readings; the mean age of patients was 68.5 years, and 72.9% were men.
• Clinicians reviewed daily readings and adjusted medical therapy, mainly diuretics, whenever pulmonary pressures moved outside predefined thresholds.
• Safety was assessed at 2 years as freedom from device- or system-related complications and sensor failure, and efficacy was evaluated by comparing HF-related hospitalisation rates in the 12 months before vs after implant. Other assessments included changes in the NYHA class, quality of life, and pulmonary artery pressure.

TAKEAWAY:

• At 2 years, the device demonstrated a reliable safety profile with no device- or system-related complications and only one pressure sensor failure (P < .0001 for both).
• The annualised HF-related hospitalisation rate fell from 1.59 events per year before implant to 0.49 events per year after the implant, corresponding to a 69% reduction in the risk (P < .0001).
• Over 24 months of follow-up, the mean pulmonary artery pressure decreased by 3.07 mm Hg (P < .0001), with significant reductions observed in systolic and diastolic pressures.
• Scores for quality of life increased by 8.1 points (P < .0001); 31.8% of patients improved to NYHA class II and 6.0% improved to class I at 24 months. Patients maintained high adherence, with 81.7% transmitting daily readings consistently over 2 years.

IN PRACTICE:

"The results of the COAST study demonstrate not only the safety of the CardioMEMS HF System, with safe implantation and very few device complications at 24 months, but also its effectiveness with a significant reduction in pulmonary pressures and annualized HFH [HF hospitalisation] rates, in conjunction with improvements in NYHA class and quality of life," the authors of the study wrote.

SOURCE:

This study was led by Pascal de Groote, MD, PhD, Institut Coeur Poumon, Lille, France. It was published online on April 01, 2026, in European Heart Journal Open.

LIMITATIONS:

The study lacked a control comparison due to the open-label design of the COAST registry. The study population consisted of patients with severe HF symptoms treated by HF specialists at selected investigational sites, which may have limited the generalisability of the findings to average practitioners.

DISCLOSURES:

The COAST study was funded by Abbott. Some authors disclosed receiving honoraria, advisory board membership along with travel and educational grants, or honoraria for lectures and serving on advisory boards of Abbott. Two authors disclosed being employees of Abbott. Two other authors reported receiving speaker fees, consultancy fees for advisory board participation, and honoraria for lectures from various healthcare companies.

This article was created using several editorial tools, including AI, as part of the process. Human editors reviewed this content before publication.