Jack Dull can walk only about a block before he has to stop and rest. It took him three years to paint the garage doors at his Brickerville home.

The 66-year-old retired truck driver has heart failure. He's taking medication but still has shortness of breath and other symptoms.

So Dull is trying something new, an implanted device that is being studied here and at sites across the country as a possible treatment for heart failure, a disease that affects about 6 million people in the United States.

Most commonly caused by a heart attack or high blood pressure, heart failure results in the heart being unable to pump enough blood for the needs of the body. It can cause the body to retain fluid, leading to swelling in the legs, feet or abdomen.

Heart failure is a leading cause of hospitalization for people over the age of 65, according to the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.

Working with research staff at the Lancaster Heart & Vascular Institute, local cardiologist Dr. Roy Small is participating in a study that is testing the new device for heart failure patients.

These are patients, such as Dull, who have tried all the standard therapies but still are experiencing symptoms.

"What else can you do for them?" Small said.

Doctors are testing this as the next possible step.

Similar to a pacemaker, the device is implanted beneath the skin in the chest, below the collarbone, in a procedure that takes about an hour. The device has two electrodes: one goes to the heart; the other goes to the right branch of the vagus nerve, a long nerve that runs from the brain down through the chest and abdomen on both sides of the body.

The vagus nerve acts to slow down the heart. By stimulating it with the device, researchers hope it may control the symptoms of heart failure.

Similar devices already are being used to treat other diseases, such as epilepsy and depression.

Dull had his vagus nerve stimulator implanted in December and turned on in January. The device works by pulsing the nerve.

"When they first turned it on, I felt that right afterward, but I don't feel it anymore," he said.

Dull will have the device for four and a half years, as doctors test its effectiveness among study participants, including a group of patients who, like Dull, have the device and a control group of patients who do not.

"Changes in the heart can take quite some time. He may not feel anything for six months," said Small, who is with the Heart Group of Lancaster General Health.

Success could be measured by patients being able to walk farther or do more, or by having fewer hospitalizations.

Small is careful to say that doctors do not know the outcome of the study.

"We don't know if it will be helpful," he said. "We don't know if it's going to make him better."

If the device turns out to be effective, Dull will get to keep it at the study's conclusion.

"I hope it helps me," he said, "so I can do a little more than I'm doing now."

He likes to work on his truck and tinker around his shop, and he'd like to remodel a bathroom.

The heart failure study is being conducted at five sites in Pennsylvania, including Hershey Medical Center. In all, 85 study sites hope to enroll 650 patients.

Dull is the first patient to be enrolled in the local study site, which hopes eventually to enroll 10 patients, who must meet a strict list of criteria.
cstauffer@lnpnews.com