Scientists are reporting promising results for a heart failure device being tested at Jewish Hospital and other centers nationally.

The C-Pulse Heart Assist System is a mechanical device that operates outside the patient’s bloodstream and is used to treat moderate to severe heart failure. It’s being tested on 20 patients at eight North American sites, according to officials from maker Sunshine Heart Inc., which has corporate offices in Minnesota and Australia.

Sunshine Heart officials presented the study data this week at the 23rd annual Transcatheter Cardiovascular Therapeutics scientific symposium in San Francisco.

“The study results….have been significant,” said Drew Avril, media relations director for CoActive Health Communications. “While heart failure is a disease that steadily advances in nearly all patients, the heart failure classifications for all but one C-Pulse patient either remained unchanged or demonstrated improvement.”

He said two patients were permanently removed from therapy because of improvements.

Doctors said the results call for another multi-center trial to further assess the safety and effectiveness of the device.

Source: The Courier-Journal