October 25, 2018 – Mitral Valve Clip

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Anchor lead: A new device may benefit those with heart failure and a heart valve problem, Elizabeth Tracey reports

Heart failure can cause the heart to enlarge and stretch, and then cause the mitral valve, on the left side of the heart, to become leaky. Now a new study shows that a clip device can help, resulting in significantly reduced mortality in people who got it. David Kass, a cardiologist and heart failure researcher at Johns Hopkins describes the intervention.

Kass: In this trial they’re basically saying you have heart failure that’s why the valve got overstretched. And you’ve got a leaky valve. We’re going to put a suspenders almost, it’s going to clip on one side and a clip on the other side and it pulls the two leaflets in the middle and it forms like a figure 8. :16

Kass says he thinks the actual number of people who would benefit from this device may be low, if the right combination of medicines and other strategies are employed.

Kass: The answer comes first by making sure that they’ve been evaluated by experienced heart failure clinicians and that they really are optimally medically managed.  :12

At Johns Hopkins, I’m Elizabeth Tracey.