Hitachi Aloka Medical is collaborating with researchers at the Cardiff University School of Medicine in the U.K. to establish industry standards for the development and evaluation of diagnostic tools such as Hitachi's eTracking and Wave Intensity, the company has announced.
Cardiologists from 13 centers in Europe have worked together to gather results from e-tracking carotid arteries using Hitachi Aloka Medical vascular transducers in more than 2,000 normal subjects. Dr. Alan Fraser of Cardiff University is leading the effort, according to the firm.
Increased arterial stiffness causes increased pressure and load to be placed on the heart; e-tracking measures the timing of forward pressure waves in the heart, which in patients with increased arterial stiffness, travel back to the heart more quickly. Hitachi Aloka's Wave Intensity tool helps estimate the local direction and amplitude of waves in an artery via simultaneous recordings of diameter (with pressure) and velocity, the company said.
