Cheetah Medical's NICOM(R) System for Noninvasive Hemodynamic Monitoring Found to be an Effective Tool for Identification of Acute Heart Failure in the Emergency Department

TEL AVIV, Israel, November 4, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- A study performed by investigators from the Emergency Department of the Cleveland Clinic Foundation finds that Cheetah Medical's NICOM system is effective in identification of acute heart failure (AHF) and in differentiating it from other acute situations with similar clinical presentations. The study was published last week in the American Journal of Emergency Medicine.

Heart failure exacerbation is a potentially life-threatening condition which frequently manifests as shortness of breath, or "dyspnea." In 2006, over 3 million visits to hospital emergency departments were for a chief complaint of shortness of breath. In addition to heart failure, shortness of breath is associated with a variety of other diagnoses involving the lungs, heart and other organs, including chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), asthma, metabolic and psychiatric conditions. Early, correct diagnosis and management is key to improve outcomes while relieving heavy patient burdens in hospital emergency departments.

In this study, the Cheetah Medical NICOM(R) Noninvasive Cardiac Output & Hemodynamic Monitoring System was able to distinguish heart failure patients from patients diagnosed with COPD, asthma and dyspnea for other reasons. This US FDA-cleared, fully non-invasive bedside test utilizes a set of four sensors applied on the patient's chest or back. In this study, the system was used to monitor patients' hemodynamics around a change in patient position, also known as "orthostatic challenge". The NICOM system captured the markedly different hemodynamic response of heart failure patents as compared to the other causes of dyspnea and to accurately differentiate between heart failure and other conditions.

Rakesh Engineer, MD, FACEP, Discipline Leader, Emergency & Undifferentiated Care at the Cleveland Clinic Lerner College of Medicine and the study's Primary Investigator, said: "Acute heart failure affects 5.8 million Americans per year, with costs exceeding $33 billion. Clinical judgment, even when combined with our best biomarkers, produces a diagnostic accuracy of only 82.5%. Clearly, new methods to determine the etiology of shortness of breath in emergency patients are needed. This study illustrates the utility of NICOM Bioreactance Technology in differentiating acute heart failure from asthma and COPD".

W. Frank Peacock, MD, FACEP, Vice Chair, Emergency Medicine Institute, Cleveland Clinic Foundation, and the study's Senior Author, said: "Outcomes in patients presenting to the emergency department with acute shortness of breath are related to appropriate and timely therapy. When therapy is delayed or inappropriate, the acute mortality rate is increased. Our data suggest that an early and accurate heart failure diagnosis can be determined by measuring hemodynamic changes using NICOM Technology."

About Acute Heart Failure and Its Diagnosis in the Emergency Department

Emergency department (ED) visits for symptoms related to heart failure are very common, responsible for about 5% of annual visits to the ED in the US. Determining the most accurate early diagnosis of heart failure remains a clinical challenge. The best currently available diagnostic laboratory tests and clinical decision-making in the emergency department yield a diagnostic accuracy for acute heart failure of about 80%. Acute heart failure requires rapid diagnosis and management as it is associated with significant near-term mortality and high healthcare costs. There are over one million annual hospital admissions for heart failure in the U.S. alone, with total national hospital costs exceeding $33 billion. Initiating the earliest appropriate treatment protocols for acute heart failure can help to reduce patient morbidity and mortality, as well as reduce healthcare costs.

About Cheetah Medical

Cheetah Medical's NICOM(R) Noninvasive Cardiac Output and Hemodynamic Monitoring System uses the company's proprietary BIOREACTANCE(R) Technology to deliver continuous, accurate, noninvasive cardiac output (CO) and other vital hemodynamic monitoring parameters, useful for fluid management and drug titration. The system is US FDA cleared and CE Marked, and since its commercial launch in 2008 has been adopted by a growing number of clinicians worldwide. Cheetah Medical headquarters is located in Tel-Aviv, Israel and its United States headquarters is located in Portland, Oregon. For more information, visit our website at http://www.cheetah-medical.com.

    For More Information Contact:

    Yoav Avidor, MD
    Chief Executive Officer
    Cheetah Medical
    [email protected]
    Telephone: +972-3-644-0288

SOURCE Cheetah Medical Ltd