From shortness of breath, fatigue, and walking with a cane to “dancing”—how using the new Shape-HF medical device helped cardiologists improve life for 66-year-old heart failure patient

Cardiac resynchronization therapy (CRT) pacemakers and implantable cardioverter defibrillators (ICDs) are lifesavers for patients with advanced heart failure. For many patients, such a device will have them feeling better right away. For others—those who simply don’t respond to the initial device settings or who may encounter problems related to their device—they continue to suffer from shortness of breath and fatigue upon exertion.

 

For patients like 66-year-old Queen P., relief began with breathing into a tube connected to a new medical device called the Shape-HF.

 

Before having a CRT defibrillator (CRT-D) implanted in 2005, Queen had experienced four heart attacks and had been given therapy that included pharmaceuticals, a special diet and exercise. The CRT-D had Queen feeling better until a recent car accident. She began having more shortness of breath and fatigue. Cardiologists at the University of Illinois Chicago Medical Center discovered a wire from the ICD was stimulating her phrenic nerve, which impacted her breathing. Even with an adjustment to her device, Queen was still feeling tired, weak and rundown.

 

In June 2009, Dr. Abraham Kocheril, Professor of Medicine and Director of Clinical Electrophysiology, suggested that Queen take the Shape-HF test. On the day of the test Queen entered Dr. Kocheril’s office using a scooter and a cane. At first, walking on the treadmill was difficult. As Dr. Kocheril optimized her CRT-D programming—a procedure done in real-time while the patient is being tested—Queen began to feel better. “By the end of the test I felt good enough to go dancing!” says Queen. Today she walks to the bus stop, church, and everywhere she needs to without her cane or her scooter. She bikes on her stationary bike for 15 minutes, three times a day, and she signed up for a step class at her local gym (she just needs to find someone to go with her!).