CardioTrace monitors cardiovascular health by measuring arterial
blood flow
12 June 2010
Kent-based Advanced Global Health has launched CardioTrace, a
non-invasive device that monitors the blood flow in arteries to identify
fitness levels and abnormalities, allowing users to discover in real
time whether their lifestyle, diet and exercise routines need to change.
CardioTrace is clipped on to a patient’s finger and connected to
a computer by a USB connector. The device then measures the speed of
the blood travelling through the larger arteries for 90 seconds,
calculating the Arterial Stiffness Index, before comparing the
reading against normal data for the patient's age and ethnicity.
Measuring
a person’s pulse speed not only determines their personal health
levels but also identifies if they are potentially at risk with a
likelihood of developing diseases such as diabetes or high blood
pressure in the future.
The device also offers the possibility for mass screening of
populations at an incredibly low cost, and with medically accepted
accuracy and correlation. Arterial stiffness continues to be
associated with an increasing number of health risks and is
increasingly used alongside common health markers, strengthening the
value of screening in the community.
David Fisher, Managing Director of Advanced Global Health, said:
“Early identification of abnormal cardiovascular readings which can
lead to life-threatening conditions, particularly when a person is
already showing tendencies towards obesity, for example, is crucial
and is a key objective of world health organisation's across the
globe. Now, with the introduction of CardioTrace, cardiovascular
screening has been made even easier and in just 30 seconds millions
of people’s lives can be transformed when adopting a proactive
approach.”
The revolutionary technology has been developed as a result of
complex research and product development carried out in a number of
countries including the UK, Germany, China and Eastern Europe and is
already attracting widespread acclaim, with many hundreds of peer
reviewed and published study and research papers.
In the UK, arterial stiffness is currently one of a number of
health markers being identified within the UK BioBank programme — a
nationwide health screening initiative provided by the NHS in
conjunction with charitable donations and private sponsorship — to
follow the health of 500,000 people across the UK — tracking their
medical records for a period of 30 years to help to improve the
health of future generations. With genetic analysis and exploring
links between illnesses, including arterial stiffness, baseline
readings are almost complete and data evaluation in full flow.