CorazonX: Ultrasound Innovation Detects Most Common Form of Heart Disease

One of the most widespread yet challenging problems in medicine is coronary artery disease (CAD). It is the most common form of heart disease in the U.S., contributing to nearly half a million deaths every year with the majority showing no previous symptoms. CAD is also difficult to detect with current clinical methods that rely on risk assessment. On average, 88% of those who die from heart attacks due to CAD would have been considered at low to moderate risk the day before.

One difficulty in diagnosing CAD, especially in its early stages, is the lack of an inexpensive yet accurate screening test. Current diagnostic tests for CAD, such as stress tests, CT scans and angiograms, are invasive and uncomfortable; costly due to the need for specialized training and large, expensive instruments; and potentially unsafe due to the use of drugs and radiation.
Now, UW scientists have developed a unique way of detecting CAD that may be the solution to these limitations. The technology detects the presence of arterial plaques which lead to narrowed, or stenosed arteries in the heart. The new method uses Doppler ultrasound to detect vibrations in the arterial walls caused by the presence of plaques. Like a rock in a stream, a plaque interrupts the normally smooth flow of blood through the artery, creating turbulence, which in turn causes the artery walls to vibrate.
UW TechTransfer recently licensed rights to the technology to CorazonX, a Seattle-based startup founded to commercialize the ultrasound technology. Local entrepreneurs Robert Hart and Scot Land have formed Technology Development Corporation to spin new companies out of the UW, and CorazonX will be the first.
The technology was developed by senior fellow Siddhartha Sikdar, who while working in the laboratories of Yongmin Kim, Professor and Chair of Bioengineering, and Kirk Beach, Professor of Surgery, developed signal processing algorithms to detect and quantify tissue vibrations using ultrasound.

In the first phase of testing symptomatic patients at high risk for CAD, the researchers found the system to be highly successful at detecting arterial plaques. Plans are now underway for a second phase of testing in Seattle clinics with patients who have no known disease. The researchers will compare the performance of the new ultrasound technology with current diagnostic tests.

The development of a noninvasive, inexpensive, fast, and potentially portable test that detects CAD in its early stages could become a routine part of annual physical checkups that may also save millions of lives.

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