About HDI's Products
Events
Distributorship
News
Research Studies
Employment
Search
Contact Us
Legal/Section 16
Home
 


     

Welcome!    

Hypertension Diagnostics, Inc. welcomes you! Physicians, consumers, researchers and investors will find news and information about cardiovascular health, the CVProfilor® system and HDI at this site. View upcoming vents, press releases and articles as well as financial summaries and specific information regarding HDI's technology.  MORE  

      

 

      

   
 
Send this page
to a colleague
!

  

    

Early assessment of vascular disease with the CVProfilor® 

Welcome to Hypertension Diagnostics, Inc. We have developed a method for non-invasively measuring the elasticity of large and small arteries, providing early assessment of vascular disease. HDI's CVProfilor® allows a physician or researcher to profile individuals with respect to their cardiovascular health. This capability is incorporated into a series of products designed by HDI specifically for use in both clinics and research environments.

HDI's patented profiling method is now available in several products, offered internationally and in the U.S. MORE PRODUCT INFORMATION

     

An article from the
American Heart Association:

High Blood Pressure Drug Eases Vessel Stiffness, Lowers Systolic Pressures - May 28, 2002
DALLAS (American Heart Association) -- The first of a new class of drugs reduces blood pressure better than the well-known ACE inhibitors and appears to reverse some of the vessel stiffness thought to be an inevitable part of aging, researchers say in a Rapid Track report from Circulation: Journal of the American Heart Association. MORE
  

 

Cardiovascular health 
for patients and consumers

A physician's view into the elasticity of your large and small arteries can help to determine whether there is potential risk for vascular disease, or whether you may need more specific testing. Visit our consumer and patient information area to learn more about how this test can help you and your physician zero in on your cardiovascular health. MORE

 

About Hypertension Diagnostics

Hypertension Diagnostics, Inc., headquartered in Eagan, Minnesota, was founded in July 1988 to develop a proprietary blood pressure waveform analysis methodology into a non-invasive means for measuring the elasticity of large and small arteries. HDI has developed proprietary blood pressure waveform analysis technology which has been incorporated into the design of several products:

The HDI/PulseWave™ CR-2000 Research 
CardioVascular Profiling System
:
designed for use by researchers both inside and outside the U.S.

The CVProfilor® DO-2020 CardioVascular Profiling 
System
:
designed for use by U.S. physicians only 

The CVProfilor® MD-3000 CardioVascular Profiling 
System
:
designed for use by physicians outside the U.S. 

    
These non-invasive Systems are capable of measuring several hemodynamic parameters including arterial compliance (that is, the elasticity of an individual's arteries). Such measurements are useful to clinical researchers studying cardiovascular interventions in industry (for example, pharmaceutical manufacturers) and in academic and medical centers. 

The CVProfilor® Systems have a clinical application due to their sensitivity to early arterial changes which can determine if patients have potential underlying vascular disease that might require more specific diagnostic evaluation by physicians or other health care professionals. 

The CVProfilor® DO-2020 System, intended for use by U.S. physicians to assess patients for vascular disease, is a medical device cleared for marketing by the FDA. The Company is currently pursuing foreign registrations that will allow marketing of a similar product, the CVProfilor® MD-3000 System, for use by physicians and other health care professionals in markets outside the U.S.

   

The Clinical Problem

Cardiovascular disease is the number one killer of adults in the industrialized world. Some who are at risk are people:

  • With a family history of CV disease/death

  • With a family history of CV disease/morbid obesity

  • With a family history of diabetes

  • Who smoke

  • With a family history of elevated cholesterol

  • Who have a sedentary lifestyle

  • With a family history of high blood pressure

Initial screening of persons non-invasively may identify potential, underlying vascular disease that might require more specific diagnostic evaluation.

Cardiovascular specialists spend considerable effort on evaluating heart function, including electrocardiograms (ECGs), echocardiograms and stress tests, but are limited in their ability to assess the functional and structural abnormality of the arteries prior to the late phase of arterial obstruction. 

   

Hypertension Diagnostics' Solution

HDI's technology measures a blood pressure waveform produced by the beating heart that HDI believes can be analyzed to provide an assessment of arterial elasticity. When the aortic valve closes after the heart has ejected its stroke volume of blood (the blood ejected during each heart beat), the decay or decrease of blood pressure within the arteries prior to the next heart beat forms a pressure curve or waveform which is indicative of arterial elasticity. 

Subtle changes in arterial elasticity introduce changes in the arterial system that are reflected in the arterial blood pressure waveform and research suggests that these changes in the function and structure of the arterial wall precede the development of diseases such as hypertension and diabetes.

Utilizing the physiological phenomena associated with blood pressure waveforms, Drs. Jay N. Cohn and Stanley M. Finkelstein, Professors at the University of Minnesota Medical School in Minneapolis and two of the founders of HDI, developed in the early 1980’s a method for determining a measure of elasticity in both large and small arteries. 

The technique involved an invasive procedure that placed a small catheter connected to a pressure transducer into the patient’s artery in order to obtain a blood pressure waveform that could be analyzed using a modified Windkessel model. This model is a well-established electrical analog model which describes the pressure changes during the diastolic phase of the cardiac cycle in the circulatory system.

Subsequent to the initial studies of Drs. Cohn and Finkelstein, HDI developed a non-invasive approach. This blood pressure waveform or "pulse contour analysis" method provided an independent assessment of the elasticity or flexibility of the large arteries which expand to briefly store blood ejected by the heart, and of the very small arteries (and arterioles) which produce oscillations or reflections in response to the blood pressure waveform generated during each heart beat. This also provided HDI with a patent-protected technology platform to support its future business.

By assessing the elasticity of the arterial system, clinical investigators have been able to identify a reduction in arterial elasticity in patients without evidence of traditional risk factors, suggesting the early presence of vascular disease. Furthermore, clinical research data has demonstrated that individuals with heart failure, coronary artery disease, hypertension and diabetes typically exhibit a loss of arterial elasticity. 

These abnormal blood vessel changes often appear to precede overt signs of cardiovascular disease and the occurrence of a heart attack or stroke by many years. Clinical investigators have also demonstrated an age-related loss of elasticity of both the large and small arteries suggesting that premature stiffening of an individual’s arteries is an apparent marker for the early onset of cardiovascular disease.

   

Go Directly to a Review of HDI's CVProfilor®

 

Back to Top

 

 

   

Our Vision: To be a world leader in the design, development, manufacture and distribution of medical products as well as in the dissemination of clinical information which improve the quality of human life through increased predictability of cardiovascular disease.

   

   

   

Our Mission: To establish HDI's cardiovascular profiling products as the standard for identifying and monitoring patients with cardiovascular disease.

   

   

   

Our Quality Policy: HDI will design, manufacture and market cardiovascular profiling instruments that meet or exceed customer requirements, quality standards, and regulatory requirements.

 

 

     

Copyright © 2007 Hypertension Diagnostics, Inc
Last revised Tuesday June 26, 2007
HDI Legal Information