May 14, 2018 — Ancora Heart Inc. announced the expansion of the company’s U.S. feasibility study to evaluate the investigational AccuCinch Ventricular Repair System designed for the treatment of heart failure and functional mitral regurgitation (FMR). Ancora has received approval from the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to enroll a second group of subjects and expand to 15 heart centers across the United States.
The AccuCinch procedure is intended to directly repair the enlarged left ventricle, targeting the underlying cause of heart failure. This minimally invasive procedure is designed to reduce the size of the left ventricle, improve left ventricular function and reduce symptoms of heart failure, with the goal of improving quality of life for patients.
“Today there is an enormous unmet need for effective treatment options for patients with heart failure, as many patients either do not undergo or may not benefit from traditional surgical approaches,” said Paul Sorajja, M.D., Roger L. and Lynn C. Headrick Family Chair for Valve Science Research at the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation Valve Science Center, and principal investigator for the study at Minneapolis Heart. “Early results suggest that AccuCinch has the potential to be the first therapy of its kind to treat dysfunction of the left ventricle and indicate this approach may address the shortcomings of current heart failure and FMR treatments.”
The AccuCinch therapy has the potential to treat heart failure and FMR patients in whom the disease has progressed beyond the ability for medications and pacemakers to manage symptoms, or for whom the risks of open-heart surgery are too high. Unlike current technologies that replicate surgical procedures to replace or repair an otherwise-normal mitral valve, AccuCinch is designed to repair the left ventricle directly to enable proper mitral valve function.
For more information: www.ancoraheart.com