Devices & Diagnostics, Startups

Fat-detecting sensor could help diagnose heart disease

MedCity News has partnered with BioCrossroads to provide coverage focused on Indiana’s next generation of […]


MedCity News has partnered with BioCrossroads to provide coverage focused on Indiana’s next generation of growth and innovation in life sciences.

A small sensor that can directly measure the fat levels in arterial walls could help docs better diagnose heart disease. The device, which can be fed through the femoral artery by a cardiologist with a simple procedure, could show the specific location and severity of a patient’s heart disease.

The device is being developed by Indiana-based Vibronix, a Purdue spinout. The tech comes out of the lab of Ji-Xin Cheng, a professor of biomedical engineering and chemistry at Purdue. He’s serving as president, but Vibronix is on the lookout for a CEO and funding to push the development process along.

“In hospitals, there are no methods to quantify the amount and location of lipids in the arterial wall,” Cheng said. “Because of these difficulties, physicians have difficulty choosing the optimum method to treat their patients, and researchers have difficulties developing next generation drugs.”

The sensor measures just 1 millimeter thick, and is injected into the femoral artery. The sensor then emits light onto the arterial wall. Only lipids respond to this light, CTO Pu Wang said; the device then emits acoustic signals that are detected by the sensor.

“We rotate and pull back the sensor in the artery, which creates a three-dimensional view that shows where high-density lipid sections have developed on the arterial wall,” Wang said.

Such info could also help researchers and CROs improve their drug development process, the company says. Here’s the use-case for the device, straight from Cheng:

“There are no methods to quantify the amount of lipids inside the arterial wall. These lipids, caused by cholesterol, build on the wall and slow down or block blood flow to the heart. A heart attack results when blood supply to the heart is completely blocked,” Cheng said. “There also are no methods to locate where lipids are located. If a person with chest pain visits a cardiologist, the cardiologist may give a stent that releases the pain, but it doesn’t reduce the probability of a heart attack.”

Purdue put together a video that illustrates Vibronix’s technology:

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