A Lakeland man became the first patient with diastolic heart failure to receive an experimental device Wednesday to help regulate his heart function.

     The device was implanted Wednesday morning by Dr. Murray Shames, associate professor of surgery in the USF College of Medicine, at Tampa General Hospital. The patient is part of a clinical trial of the CVRx Rheos System, a pacemaker-like device designed to improve how a failing heart functions.

    Dr. Shames holds up a Rheos device fastened around a model carotid artery.

      In patients with heart failure, the heart can’t pump enough blood to supply the body. Patients become short of breath because fluid fills their lungs. Their legs, ankles and feet can swell. They tire easily. Most people with heart failure die within five years.

      “This device, which works on the brain to help regulate cardiovascular function, appears to be a promising new therapy for a very bad, life-limiting disease,” said Dr. Shames, surgical director of the trial’s Tampa site.

     Current treatments for diastolic heart failure call for medications to lessen the symptoms of the disease, such as fluid in the lungs and swelling in the legs, ankles and feet. Dr. Shames pointed out that such drugs don’t treat the underlying problem.

     “There’s nothing really that helps cure the heart,” he said. “Theoretically, this may allow the heart to recover.”

     The CVRx Rheos System is implanted in the chest, with wires attaching to the carotid baroreceptors. The baroreceptors regulate blood flow. When the system is in place, the baroreceptors should send signals to the brain, causing the brain to tell the body to relax its arteries, slow its heart rate and reduce fluid build-up.

     This trial will enroll more than 500 patients at up to 70 sites around the U.S. and in Europe. In Tampa, Dr. Fadi Matar, USF affiliate assistant professor of medicine and medical director of  Tampa General’s cardiac intensive care unit, is the principal investigator.

     Dr. Shames has already implanted about a dozen of the devices for a separate trial of the system to see how well it treats uncontrolled high blood pressure. But, on Wednesday, he operated on the world’s first patient to receive an implant of the Rheos device for heart failure, CVRx representatives said.

     Wednesday’s surgery went well, Dr. Shames said. Now doctors are waiting to see whether the patient shows signs of improvement.

     Photos by Eric Younghans, Story by Lisa Greene, USF Health Communications