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Presym is a California-based company producing Endocor™ and T-Brace, the first direct biomechanical measurement of heart health that are safe, disposable, low-cost, non-invasive, highly sensitive and are easily integrated into current healthcare environments and operating rooms. The ACC / AHA define the biomechanical function of the heart as the ability of the heart to exert force and pump blood. Most heart diseases are mechanical in origin, in other words, some type of “plumbing” problem such as valves, or vessel blockages, etc. Electrical diseases of the heart, such as arrhythmia, are easily detected with the Electrocardiogram (ECG/EKG) but the EKG does not measure biomechanical force of the heart. A non invasive direct measure of the heart’s biomechanical pumping ability has been sought by physicians and scientists and is available now.
Cardiac Ischemia, when the heart cannot work as hard as required, is often a “plumbing” problem and may result in chest pain (angina) or heart attacks. Using the EKG, an electrical tool, to detect a plumbing/mechanical problem is akin to checking your engine’s alternator to measure how much horsepower it can produce. Other heart tests such as echocardiogram “see” the heart AFTER it has been damaged or diseased and the consequences are visible as changes in the way the walls of the heart move. Checking the reduction of horsepower in an engine versus taking a picture of the engine is the difference between Presym’s technology and today’s most sophisticated imaging technologies.
Heart disease is a silent killer because artery blockages may continue to increase without any symptoms. Physicians cannot accurately measure the reduction in cardiac strength due to a mechanical problem (such as a blockage) that eventually leads to a cardiac event such as a heart attack or angina. Damage to the heart or plumbing can be confirmed by angiogram, echo, PET, and other modalities, but these are very expensive.
The heart’s primary function is to fill and pump to deliver oxygenated blood into the body. The heart “contracts” in order to squeeze the blood out every heart beat. This coordinated activity is referred to as cardiac “contractility”. Scientists and physicians all agree that the contractile strength of the heart is the main life force. A healthy 20 years old heart, has a much stronger life force (i.e. contractility) versus a healthy 80 year old heart. As humans age, the heart’s force diminishes over time due to age, nutrition, environmental toxicity, stress and other related factors. [See Figure Above] The attempts to measure the contractile strength of the heart rely on indirect methods of measurements such as imaging.
Continuing the automobile example, the best indicator for measuring the life force of the engine is a torque meter that measures how much horsepower an engine produces. As an engine ages, the horsepower diminishes accordingly. Over time, mechanical issues such as valve, leaks, and blockages result in poor performance of the engine. The analogy with the heart is that we simply cannot measure the horsepower of the heart unless we open up the chest wall and surgically insert a special sensor that would measure the continuous torque output of the heart, which is not very practical.
The Presym devices measure contractility by detecting the “Isovolumic Contraction” (IVC), a phase of heart cycle when the blood is in the ventricles and all of the valves are closed. The heart muscle builds up energy in order to prepare to pump the blood to the lungs and rest of the body. This IVC is a very short time frame, about 50 to 80 milliseconds, or 5 - 8% of a second, faster than what camera’s can capture, thus that is the reason why today’s imaging technologies cannot see this very important phase of the cardiac cycle. The IVC is directly correlated to heart health as it utilizes about 80% of the hearts energy during this very phase in the cardiac cycle. Thus, if the IVC is low, the heart is weak. If the IVC is strong, the heart is strong.
In Summary, Presym’s devices fill the need for a direct biomechanical measurement of heart health that are safe, disposable, low-cost, non-invasive, highly sensitive and are easily integrated into current healthcare environments and operating rooms. |
