US clinical study proves efficacy of Echo IQ’s heart disease detection technology
Echo IQ chief research and strategy officer Prof Geoff Strange says the latest study demonstrates the effectiveness of its aortic stenosis detection technology across a broad, real-world US demographic.
Medical technology company Echo IQ (ASX: EIQ) has achieved “clear and positive” results from a clinical effectiveness and validation study at Beth Israel Deaconess Medical Center (BIDMC), located within the Harvard Medical School in the US.
The study used Echo’s commercially-ready, artificial intelligence-backed EchoSolv technology to retrospectively analyse 31,141 patient records with the aim of detecting individuals with severe aortic stenosis as well as those with increased risk of death from the disease in a North American population.
The results are believed to be a first for the company in what is considered to be an important market.
Rapid identification
After excluding patients previously known to have been treated with an aortic valve replacement, the study rapidly and clearly-identified a cluster of individuals who met the guideline-definitions of severe aortic stenosis.
This group accounted for approximately 5% of patients undergoing echocardiography at BIDMC.
The study revealed that this cohort received valve replacement in fewer than 50% of cases, consistent with known rates of treatment.
Overall, it showed that treatment for those with increased risk of death from aortic stenosis was received in only a quarter of cases identified by EchoSolv.
Similar-sized group
The technology was also able to identify a similar-sized group of individuals with the same patterns to those with severe aortic stenosis but a substantially-increased risk of death despite not meeting current treatment guidelines.
Identification of this group can potentially assist clinicians to prioritise patients who may benefit from more intense follow-up or aortic valve replacement.
Better management
Echo executive chair Andrew Grover said the use of EchoSolv by clinicians, physicians and heart care teams could make a huge difference to their ability to identify and better manage patients who need timely specialist care.
“A number of US hospital groups with whom we are in advanced stages of discussion have been cautiously optimistic that this study would yield positive results,” he said.
“Now that we can clearly show the efficacy of technology in this kind of setting, we expect to see rapid commercial deployment for retrospective use, which will increase the treatment options for patients as well as the opportunities to treat for healthcare professionals.”
Heart valve disease
Aortic stenosis is one of the most common and serious types of heart valve disease.
Research shows survival rates without treatment for severe aortic stenosis are approximately 50% at two years after the onset of symptoms, dropping to 20% at five years.
Severe aortic stenosis affects up to 300,000 people in the US each year.