Jersey Shore University Medical Center participates in Medtronic APOLLO Clinical Trial to treat heart valve disease

Hackensack Meridian Jersey Shore University Medical Center provides patients with state-of-the-art clinical trials in the management of heart valve disease and congestive heart failure. The Neptune-based academic medical center recently announced its participation in the Medtronic APOLLO Clinical Trial, which is evaluating the safety and efficacy of an investigative device called the Intrepid Transcatheter Mitral Valve Replacement System. TMVR is used to treat moderate-to-severe or severe symptomatic mitral regurgitation in patients who may not be suitable for approved transcatheter repair or surgery.

HMH Jersey Shore is one of only two New Jersey hospitals offering the trial to patients.

“Many patients with symptoms of mitral regurgitation are not candidates for open heart surgery due to their advanced age or competing comorbidities, nor are they candidates for the only alternative, the MitraClip device. They are left with no options other than medicines. The Intrepid TMVR is a heart valve that is designed to help alleviate mitral regurgitation so that blood can flow through the heart in the intended direction,” Dr. Matthew Saybolt, principal site investigator and medical director, Structural Heart Disease Program, Jersey Shore University Medical Center, said. “It is a complete mitral valve replacement that can be implanted minimally invasively through a patient’s femoral vein, through a catheter or tube.”

Your heart has four valves that move blood in and out of its four chambers. When the mitral valve is functioning normally, it regulates blood flow from the upper chamber (left atrium) of the heart to the lower chamber of the heart (left ventricle). However, when the mitral valve is diseased, it may not close tightly and blood can leak back into the left atrium, where it came from. This is known as a “leaky valve” or MR.

Mitral valve disease has many causes, such as heart attack and other types of heart disease, a heart condition present at birth, certain infections or simply older age.

“People may not have symptoms for many years, if at all, but they can include; fatigue, irregular heart sound or murmur, irregular heartbeat and shortness of breath,” Saybolt said.

“The expertise of our clinicians, like Dr. Saybolt, enables our academic medical center to provide these leading-edge clinical trials. I’m glad we are able to offer this expert care to the community we serve,” Vito Buccellato, president and chief hospital executive, Jersey Shore University Medical Center, said.