Abbott has begun a collaboration with AtaCor Medical to advance its next-generation, investigational, extravascular implantable cardioverter-defibrillator (EV-ICD) for people with life-threatening heart rhythms.

AtaCor is a cardiac rhythm management (CRM) company that develops extravascular defibrillation technologies, which are designed to lower the risks related to traditional ICDs. The company’s investigational parasternal EV-ICD lead will be merged with Abbott’s investigational ICD system.

A traditional ICD lead connects to the heart and monitors rhythm to spot irregularities. The Abbott-AtaCor EV-ICD is a minimally invasive option that can help avoid complications like vascular injury, lead fractures or malfunctions, and lead infections. Because the lead components are outside the heart and vasculature, it may reduce the need for complex revisions associated with leads placed through veins and across cardiac structures.

AtaCor will begin the pivotal ALARION EV investigational device exemption (IDE) clinical trial this year to evaluate the co-developed parasternal EV-ICD system. The company’s Atala lead stays outside the blood vessels and is implanted through a rib space adjacent to the left side of the breastbone.

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In addition to delivering defibrillation shocks, the novel directional lead design aims to provide pacing therapy to the heart more efficiently that products currently on the market.

“Abbott is committed to advancing transformative therapies in cardiac rhythm management,” said Randel Woodgrift, senior vice president of Abbott’s cardiac rhythm management business. “From Abbott’s revolutionary AVEIR leadless pacemaker to advances in conduction system pacing (CSP) technologies, and now the potential of the next-generation EV-ICD, Abbott is redefining what’s possible to improve patient care worldwide.”

“The Abbott-AtaCor Investigational system represents an exciting step forward in cardiac care,” added Paul Friedman, MD, Chair of Cardiovascular Medicine, Mayo Clinic, Rochester, Minn. “Its ease of implantation and potential to enable ICD therapy outside the heart while maintaining contact with cardiac tissue stands to offer an important novel therapeutic option for patients in need of life-saving protection.”