Bronson Advanced Cardiac Healthcare First in Southwest Michigan to Implant New Cardiac Monitor

Physicians at Bronson Advanced Cardiac Healthcare are the first in southwest Michigan to offer a newly FDA-approved device that monitors cardiac patients’ abnormal heart rhythms anywhere at any time using cellular technology.

The Medtronic Reveal LINQ Insertable Cardiac Monitor (ICM) is remarkably tiny, at just one-third the size of an AAA battery. That’s 80 percent smaller than competing devices, making it the smallest of its kind on the market. That means physicians only need a one-centimeter incision to implant it in a patient. The whole process takes less than a minute, and patients are in and out the same day.

Kalamazoo resident and former WMU professor, Carol Payne Smith, was one of the first patients to receive the device last March. “One day I woke up on the floor with a black eye. I’d passed out at the kitchen counter without any warning.”

The otherwise healthy and active retiree had experienced no prior symptoms to notify her that something was wrong. She later discovered that her episode resulted from a condition called cardiac arrhythmia, a malfunction in the heart’s electrical impulses that coordinate how it beats. She was a perfect candidate for the procedure and didn’t hesitate.

“I was ready for a big deal but it didn’t take long at all. It was just a matter of scrubbing off that area of my chest and getting a local anesthetic. I experienced no pain at the time, or afterward, and there is no scar whatsoever. It’s just under the skin, but I barely know it’s there.”

Now her ICM implant is using wireless data transmission to constantly check her heart beat. A small bedside base unit transmits the data to her physician’s office in real time. It is water-and MRI proof, and works from nearly any location in the world to send an alert if she experiences another cardiac event.

Many patients who have the device are enjoying a decreased need for medication, and greater peace of mind, knowing their doctor will be alerted if something goes wrong.

Brett J. Eliuk, DO, FACC, FACOI; Michael A. Pack, DO, FACC, FASE and Christopher Rogers, DO, FACC, FACAI, of Bronson Advanced Cardiac Healthcare, are currently the three physicians trained to implant this device. Patients who experience symptoms such as dizziness, palpitation, fainting and chest pain, may be at risk of cardiac arrhythmia and should alert their primary care physician.

For more information on Bronson’s heart & vascular program, visit bronsonhealth.com/heart.