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Patient at Springfield’s Prairie Heart Institute has been enrolled in national study concerning unique form of heart failure

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A patient at Springfield’s Prairie Heart Institute has been enrolled in a national study that seeks to measure the effectiveness of a new treatment to assist patients with a unique form of heart failure.

The study examines patients who are in heart failure despite having normal or near-normal rates of “ejection fraction” – the amount of blood pumped out with each heartbeat.

Such patients show signs of heart failure despite the use of standard medical interventions.

Now researchers are looking at what’s been labeled the Alleviant System, which uses a minimally invasive approach to decompress the left atrium of the heart in hopes of improving the heart’s performance.

The double-blind study will see if the procedure can reduce the buildup of blood in the heart and alleviate related symptoms like shortness of breath, fatigue, weakness, and swelling.