Detecting Heart Muscle Viability Using Myocardial Electrical Impedance

The Ohio State University
posted on 04/06/2009

Researchers at The Ohio State University have developed a method of monitoring the viability of heart muscle in both acute and chronic settings. The method measures myocardial electrical impedance which predictably varies with physiological changes in the state of heart muscle such as ischemia (lack of oxygen). The technology allows both short term monitoring during cardiac procedures and long term assessment of disease status. Alternative methods of measuring heart muscle viability are indirect measurements implying muscle viability from measurements of blood flow.

Suggested Uses

Heart bypass and heart valve replacement patients
Heart Transplant patients

Advantages

The OSU technology can be incorporated as an improvement to existing internal pacemakers or internal defibrillators using existing leads or alternatively could be implemented as a stand alone internal device. The device reacts quickly to physiological changes and can be used to monitor the effectiveness of protective methodologies and tissue preconditioning during procedures such as coronary bypass. Long term monitoring can monitor the progression of heart disease and effectiveness of treatment. When used for long-term monitoring the device can measure the effectiveness of bypass surgery or new procedures being developed such as stem cell therapy. When used to monitor heart transplants the device can detect tissue rejection without additional invasive procedures. Current diagnosis of rejection requires heart tissue biopsy.

Innovation Details

File Number: 92018

IP Protection