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Agreement reached for plaque assessment technology
HeartFlow Inc. and Cedars-Sinai announced they entered into a licensing and technology transfer agreement for a software tool used to detect and characterize coronary artery plaque based on coronary CTA images.
According to the release, HeartFlow Inc., which makes a noninvasive CT-derived fractional flow reserve assessment system (FFRCT), plans to use the technology developed by Cedars-Sinai (AutoPlaque) to provide plaque assessment in future products, providing physicians with more information to help diagnose patients with CAD and determine optimal treatment pathways.
As previously reported by Cardiology Today’s Intervention, the results of the EMERALD study, which were presented at EuroPCR 2016, showed that an FFRCT system (HeartFlow, HeartFlow Inc.) was more accurate than percent diameter stenosis or adverse plaque characteristics at predicting which coronary plaques would cause ACS.
“In addition to assessing lesion-specific physiology, understanding and characterizing coronary artery plaque is important in determining the most appropriate treatment path for patients with suspected CAD. The power of utilizing the AutoPlaque tool in the HeartFlow analysis may accelerate our ability to analyze and characterize plaque in coronary arteries,” John H. Stevens, MD, president and CEO of HeartFlow, said in the release. “HeartFlow is committed to looking beyond our initial FFRCT offering to additional novel products that can help clinicians address other important clinical factors in the diagnosis and treatment of CAD and develop solutions that we believe will benefit patients who may be most at risk for ACS.”
Disclosure: Stevens reports that he is an employee of HeartFlow.