Cardiac imaging firm seeks $2 million for ultrasound speckle technology

A Midwest medical device startup is looking to raise $2 million for its computer aided diagnostic imaging technology that measures and visualizes tissue motion using ultrasound.

UltraSound Medical Devices Inc., which does business under the name Epsilon Imaging, develops products with its proprietary TissueTrack technology that uses algorithms along with the natural acoustic patterns, or “speckles,” in ultrasound images to precisely track tissue motion in 2-D.

This technique is useful in earlier detection and more accurate diagnosis of cardiac conditions that include coronary artery disease and heart failure, and vascular conditions like stroke, diabetes, renal failure and peripheral artery disease, the company says.

Its first product, a mobile, cart-based ultrasound device for cardiac imaging that quantitatively measures the strength of the heart’s muscles, was cleared by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration in May 2010. A software product called EchoInsight that determines tissue motion, strain and strain rate for cardiac structures based on speckle tracking techniques was also cleared in February 2011. Founder and CEO Eric Sieczka told the publication concentrate in March of 2011 that the company was gearing up its operations to bring the system to market later in the year.

Founded in 2008, the Ann Arbor, Michigan company is led by executive leaders of the video surveillance company Pixel Velocity. It raised a $12 million round in 2009 from angel investors and previously received numerous SBIR grants from the National Heart Blood and Lung Institute.

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