Cambridge Heart's modified Alternans technology to identify myocardial ischemia

Sep 24 2009

Cambridge Heart, Inc. (OTCBB-CAMH) announced today that it intends to pursue research and development efforts on a new application derived from its core Microvolt T-Wave Alternans (MTWA) technology. The Company has gathered data, which although limited and preliminary, suggests that a variant of its core spectral analytic method of measuring Alternans may be able to identify myocardial ischemia which is otherwise largely undetected by more established cardiac diagnostic testing. Ischemia is defined as inadequate blood supply due to blockage of coronary arteries and can lead to myocardial infarction or what is commonly referred to as a “heart attack.” The Company’s current MTWA technology is focused on identifying those patients at risk for Sudden Cardiac Arrest (SCA) resulting from electrical disturbances in the heart.

“We have been examining the preliminary data and it appears that, in a number of instances, a positive Alternans reading correlated with the presence of myocardial ischemia, where the traditional cardiac stress test did not indicate anything abnormal, said Ali Haghighi-Mood, Cambridge Heart’s Chief Executive Officer. The physiologic link between ischemia and alternans is well-established in the experimental setting. If our modified Alternans technology can identify hidden ischemia in patients with suspected coronary artery disease, we believe it could set a new standard for the diagnostic performance of cardiac stress testing, which has undergone very little clinical innovation in many years.”

The Company has filed a provisional patent on the ischemia application and intends to file a full patent before the end of the year. The design of an initial pilot study is underway, and the Company expects to be in a position to initiate the study in the first half of 2010. It is estimated that up to 40 million cardiac stress tests are performed annually in the United States.