Atrial Fibrillation
Atrial Fibrillation is one of the most common forms of irregular heartbeats or arrhythmias in the atria which can be fatal if left untreated. Complications associated with atrial fibrillation include congestive heart failure and increased chances for strokes. Risk increases with age, with 8% of people over 80 years suffering from atrial fibrillation. Currently, there are approximately 2.2 million Americans with this cardiovascular disease.
Current treatments to restore the heart to its normal rhythm include drug therapies, electrical cardioversion, radiofrequency ablation and atrial pacemakers. None of these are effective in the long term and the patient eventually succumbs to congestive heart failure or stroke.
The failure to develop an effective therapy for AFIB emanates from two challenges: an inability to pinpoint the exact location of the asynchronous heartbeat and to concurrently direct an effective therapy to that site. Accordingly, InCube Labs is addressing AFIB via a two-pronged approach: an implantable system for locating the ectopic pacemaker site coupled with an interventional system. The system is currently in preclinical development. Our first time in human studies are planned for 2011.