Sustained Mechanical Occlusion of the Superior Vena Cava Safely Reduces Cardiac Filling Pressures in a Preclinical Model of Heart Failure.

Device-based therapies may augment decongestion in acute decompensated heart failure. We investigated the efficacy and safety of prolonged mechanical superior vena cava occlusion using the preCARDIA system in a swine model of heart failure. Over 6 h of preCARDIA activation, right- and left-sided filling pressures were significantly reduced. Plasma levels of the brain injury marker ubiquitin C-terminal hydrolase L1 and intracerebral arterial pressure were not significantly changed. Post-mortem evaluation did not identify gross cerebral or histologic injury. Future studies are needed to compare continuous versus cyclic preCARDIA activation and to further confirm the neurologic safety of sustained superior vena cava occlusion.