New BIOTRONIK ICD and CRT-D Series Gives Patients First-Ever Access to MR Scans

BERLIN, Germany, April 12, 2012 — BIOTRONIK, a leading manufacturer of innovative medical technology, announced today the European full market release of the new Lumax 740 ICDs (implantable cardiac defibrillators) and CRT-Ds (cardiac resynchronization therapy defibrillators) in the European market. The Lumax 740 is the world’s first and only ICD and CRT-D series approved for magnetic resonance imaging (MRI)1, now giving ICD and CRT-D patients access to vital MR scans with BIOTRONIK’s innovative ProMRI® technology.

“With its new Lumax 740 series BIOTRONIK is offering physicians and their patients access to state of the art diagnostics and the freedom to select the optimal ICD system for each patient’s indication. The development of the new ProMRI® technology really represents a significant improvement in patient care,” commented Professor Dr. Wilhelm Haverkamp, Charité University Hospital Berlin, Virchow-Clinic Campus, Germany.

Currently patients with standard ICDs are not allowed to have MR scans for safety reasons, yet 50–75% of them will be indicated for an MR scan during the lifetime of their device.2 Worldwide, the population of patients who need an ICD is growing at a rate of about 10–15% annually. At the same time, the need for MR scans is also increasing at a rate of about 10% each year. Approximately 30 million scans were performed in 2006, and in 2010, there were already about 50 million MR scans conducted worldwide.

source: Biotronik