Here is some news that will literally do your heart well.
On Thursday, March 26, William P. Walsh, New York City Health and Hospitals Corporation’s North Bronx Healthcare Network senior vice president and HHC Jacobi Medical Center’s executive director, announced Jacobi Medical has started offering a new compact and stronger system for continuous monitoring of heart activity in patients with cardiac arrhythmia.
The device ‘Reveal LINQ’ is manufactured by Medtronic and is an insertable cardiac monitor approximately an inch long and one-third of a AAA battery’s size.
Reveal LINQ is set beneath a patient’s skin via a small left side chest incision and provides continuous as well as wireless heart activity monitoring.
This MRI safe device is designed to transmit an alert to the patient and his or her physician through a secular cellular signal in the event of an arising alarming condition. Reveal LINQ records cardiac rhythms for an up to three year time span.
Following early 2014 approval, Jacobi Medical Center was the first HHC hospital to start providing patients Reveal LINQ late last year.
This lifesaving device is implanted in a minimally invasive procedure provided at Jacobi’s state-of-the-art cardiac catheterization lab.
“HHC is committed to bringing the best care available to the city’s public hospital system. We want our patients to have access to the latest technologies and we also want to be sure that those technologies are improving outcomes and reducing avoidable disease and hospitalizations,” Walsh said in a statement.
Cardiac monitors are recommended for patients experiencing heart rhythm irregularities like atrial fibrillation whose symptoms include dizziness, palpitation, fainting, chest pain or stroke.
Continuous monitoring is key in allowing physicians to accurately determine a patient’s heart activity over an extended period as opposed to standard external monitors.
Dr. Michael Grushko, Attending Physician of Arrhythmia and Electrophysiology at Jacobi, has currently performed this procedure five times at JMC and several more at Montefiore Medical Center.
“Due to the transient nature of arrhythmia issues, they may be missed on standard cardiac monitors that are typically used externally for 24-hour periods and then removed,” Dr. Grushko explained. “This device allows us to effectively monitor patients continuously and remotely and then quickly intervene at the first sign of trouble.”
Dr. Grushko confirmed the procedure is ‘relatively easy’ and oftentimes a patient may not require stitches.
He added the previous cardiac monitoring device was about the size of a USB drive and was not as cosmetically efficient as Reveal LINQ.
On October 28, Moreen Hunter, 53, underwent this procedure at Jacobi Medical Center.
The Olinville resident diagnosed with hypertension and coronary artery disease among other ailments is the proud recipient of a Reveal LINQ.
Hunter explained she was not nervous about the procedure and did not feel any pain afterwards.
“The incision was very small, I was able to get back on my feet the same day,” she revealed. “Now if I feel dizzy I’m able to check the device for peace of mind. By doing so, I’m also able to prevent unneeded trips to the hospital.”
