IIT Madras develops screening device for assessing blood vessel health

Researchers at the Indian Institute of Technology (IIT) Madras have developed a novel, non-invasive device to assess the health and age of blood vessels and thereby provide early screening for cardiovascular diseases.

Called ARTSENS, the device is designed such that it can be used in routine medical examination by even non-experts, to assess and predict vascular health. It is powered by a proprietary non-imaging probe and an intelligent computing platform.

Despite tremendous improvements in treatments and procedures, heart and blood vessel-related diseases continue to be the leading cause of death throughout the world. Early detection and timely intervention is the key.

"Portable and easy to use devices such as ARTSENS, when indigenously developed and validated, offer a significant cost advantage and can be a game changer in large scale screening and can be used by any stakeholder interested in primary prevention strategies" said Dr. Mohanasankar Sivaprakasam, Faculty-in-Charge, at Healthcare Technology Innovation Centre (HTIC) at IIT Madras, which developed the device.

"To the best of our knowledge, this is the first hand-held, easy-to-use, minimally operator-dependent, and cost-effective device that is suited for routine clinical practice and large-scale screening," said the team of scientists at IIT Madras, in the paper published in the Journal of Hypertension. The device has been assessed on more than 5,000 human subjects.

It must be remembered that central blood pressure (BP) that is measured using a tonometer is a better predictor of heart health than peripheral BPA that is commonly measured with the arm-cuff machine. Assessments of arterial stiffness and central BP are not part of routine clinical tests due to the absence of a convenient and reliable device to measure them.

ARTSENS simultaneously checks for arterial stiffness and central blood pressure. The device comprises pressure cuffs to be affixed at the upper arm and thighs and a probe applied to the surface of the neck to detect the carotid artery.

It measures carotid arterial stiffness, aortic pulse wave velocity and central blood pressure, all three being important markers of cardiovascular health.

"The ability of ARTSENS to assess both local and arterial stiffness along with central blood pressure, all in a single test makes it extremely useful in estimating vascular health status as an early marker in multiple disease conditions," said Dr Dinu S Chandran, Department of Physiology, AIIMS New Delhi.

"ARTSENS can open up the window of opportunity to non-invasively monitor the changes in vascular health much before the traditional cardiovascular risk factors are deranged in individuals at risk of developing cardiovascular diseases in the future.

"This will provide a significant quantum of 'lead time' to intervene and correct the life course trajectory of vascular health in comparison to the conventional cardiovascular screening approaches," Chandran added.

Researchers at AIIMS are doing an extensive clinical study using ARTSENS to understand the physiological underpinnings of arterial ageing in various disease conditions.

A similar clinical study at Radboud University Medical Center, The Netherlands aims to investigate the association between arterial age, physical (in)activity, and cardiovascular events.