CardioMEMS: where we are and where can we go?

Heart failure (HF) is a major health issue and a leading cause of hospitalization. The global prevalence has increased from 23 million in 2010 (1) to 40 million in 2015 (2). The aim of management of HF is to maintain the pumping function of the heart and prevent progression to decompensated HF and congestive sequelae which are the most common causes of hospitalization in HF patients (3). Throughout the past few decades the goal has been to find the best method for monitoring congestive symptoms. Fulfilling this task through regular physician visits, blood test and imaging modalities are insufficient for optimal control and decreasing the HF-related hospitalization rates (3). It has been shown, even markers such as N-terminal pro-B type natriuretic (NT-proBNP) which is heavily relied on for diagnosis and guiding of management of HF and one that has been shown to have some value in mortality benefit (4), cannot reliably predict mortality or overall hospitalization rates (5). Thus, remote monitoring has emerged as a viable option to overcome the long interval between office visits to serve as a tool to provide an effective method to monitor patients remotely to ‘catch’ the disease in time in order to prevent hospitalization