9 Promising Cardio Technologies: Noninvasive Assessment of Coronary Artery Blockages

Noninvasive Assessment of Coronary Artery Blockages

A sample simulated heart model from HeartFlow pinpoints a red artery as having a problematic FFR_CT estimate of 0.58.

To avoid over-stenting, physicians can determine whether a coronary artery needs to be stented by using fractional flow reserve (FFR) technology. But FFR requires cardiac catheterization.

That's where the latest advancement, called FFR_CT, comes in. The innovation, from HeartFlow Inc., uses information from a CT scan to approximate an FFR measurement. The CT scan is used to simulate blood flow through a 3-D computer model of the heart. The physician receives a report with a color-coded print out of the heart, with different colors corresponding to different FFR_CT values.

The FFR_CT received de novo clearance from FDA in late 2014. According to the FDA press release, FFR_CT has been shown to match FFR for 84% of artery blockages that would need treatment and 86% that would not need treatment. 

[Image courtesy of HEARTFLOW INC.]

Learn how to design innovative structural heart therapies at the MD&M Minneapolis conference on September 21, 2016.