Pittsburgh Firm Gets $100K to Develop Cardio Test

Pittsburgh Life Sciences Greenhouse (PLSG), an organization that invests in startup life sciences companies in Southwestern Pennsylvania, is putting $100,000 behind a new cardiovascular diagnostic firm, iNTELOMED. The company will spend the cash on proof-of-concept testing and prototype development of CVInsight, a non-invasive bedside test that measures cardiovascular stability.

iNTELOMED thinks its device overcomes the limitations of using static vital signs as a basis for assessing cardiovascular sufficiency; CVInsight uses a stress test created from a passive leg raise. A better test, according to iNTELOMED, will help keep patients out of the ICU who don’t need to be there. The company claims heart failure patients are commonly admitted to the ICU without due cause, and says current cardio assessment solutions offer little insight as to whether patients are meeting the primary objective of circulating enough oxygen to meet metabolic needs.

Of PLSG’s decision to back the technology, the organization’s CEO, John Manzetti, said in a press release, “The iNTELOMED technology has the potential to provide clinicians with a straightforward, more objective assessment when trying to evaluate who is an at-risk patient versus a low-risk patient in the ICU.”

PLSG was founded as a public/private partnership in 2001 to help emerging companies in Southwestern Pennsylvania build sustainable business models and secure capital investments. In May, the organization committed $150,000 to Celsense, a local company that was founded in 2005 to commercialize imaging platforms licensed from Carnegie Mellon University.