
Image Credit: Ceryx Medical
Low Heart Rate Variability (HRV) is an indicator of heart failure progression and mortality. Heart rate increases and decreases with each breath in normal physiology termed respiratory sinus arrhythmia (RSA). RSA is high in young, healthy people, and is lost in cardiovascular disease.
Ceryx Medical, a company based in Cardiff, Wales is developing an implantable cardiac pacemaker that reintroduces respiratory-modulated pacing with the intention to improve cardiac output as a treatment for heart failure.
A preclinical study in an ovine heart failure model showed that reintroducing respiratory-modulated pacing in heart failure results in a dramatic improvement in directly recorded cardiac output. In addition, RSA pacing reduces apnea incidence and re-models cardiomyocyte morphology.
In November 2024 Ceryx conducted a First-In-Human Study of the technology using an external Osypka pacemaker with its rate modulated by the Cysoni RSA device. The study is being conducted in New Zeland, Australia, and the UK on post-CABG patients with HFrEF who require temporary pacing.
Regarding that weird-looking double-header IPG device shown on their website – I don’t believe that it’s even a conceptual idea (the image is obviously just a PhotoShop flip and blend of the same generic IPG picture). I would think that an IPG implementing the Cysoni pacing scheme would look just like a dual-chamber pacemaker that would use a respiration signal derived from an impedance sensor to dynamically modulate the pacing rate Ceryx’s algorithm.