Is it a heart attack or indigestion? According to the American Heart Association, approximately 325,000 people per year die of a heart attack before they can reach a hospital. Many of these patients misinterpret the symptoms of a heart attack and delay seeking care, resulting in preventable deaths. The truth is that receiving rapid emergency care is critical when a patient experiences a heart attack. Rapid care can reduce permanent damage to heart muscle and even save a patient’s life.
What if a physician could identify a heart attack as it was occurring, reducing the patient’s uncertainty over symptoms? Whether in the home or in the hospital, patients diagnosed in real time would have the opportunity to seek and receive rapid care. That’s the idea behind Vectraplex AMI, the core technology of New Jersey-based company VectraCor. Device maker VectraCor has designed a system for the real-time detection of heart attacks. The company’s Vectraplex AMI technology is the first to utilize an “Electrical Cardiac Marker” to identify the beginning stages of an acute myocardial infarction. If the patient begins to have a heart attack, the system is designed to send out an alarm, resulting in a printout of the patient’s electrocardiogram (ECG) for the physician to interpret. If a heart attack is suspected, the physician could urge the patient to immediately get to a hospital.
The Vectraplex ECG system integrates three aspects of emergency cardiac care. When a patient enters an acute care setting with a potential heart attack, the patient is typically hooked up to a monitor to measure the heart rate and check for irregular heartbeat, attached to a 12-lead ECG, and subjected to blood draws to detect the presence of biomarkers associated with acute myocardial infarction. The Vectraplex AMI System monitors the heartbeat—and an electrical cardiac biomarker–without requiring a blood draw. By streamlining the process of cardiac monitoring and heart attack diagnosis, VectraCor’s technology has the potential to improve patient outcomes and reduce medical costs.
VectraCor is also utilizing its technology platform for the Vectraplex Holter unit, a portable device that will be the first holter system to incorporate a cell phone. The phone will be used to transmit cardiac data, allowing a physician to monitor and diagnose conditions in real time. VectraCor’s technology is patented or pending in over 12 countries, and the company has published more than 40 papers on its technology.