Calon Cardio-Technology Ltd.

Article preview from Start-Up - June, 2013

Ventricular assist devices are a viable long-term treatment option for patients with advanced heart failure, but their exorbitant price tag and their propensity to damage blood has limited their use. Calon Cardio-Technology Ltd.  hopes to avoid those problems with its MiniVAD, which is similar in size and weight to the smallest existing VADs, but is designed to be more efficient and process blood flow more gently.

Calon Cardio-Technology Ltd.

Article preview from Start-Up - June, 2013

For patients with advanced heart failure, human heart transplantation offers the best solution for increased longevity and symptomatic relief. But with the number of donor hearts severely limited, implantable mechanical pumps that pump blood to the body and vital organs – also known as ventricular assist devices (VADs) – have increasingly become a viable long-term treatment option, supplementing their routine use as a “bridge” for transplant patients waiting for a donor heart. Yet, despite the fanfare surrounding VADs, their actual use is restricted, mainly because of their exorbitant price tag and their propensity to cause harmful changes to the blood a few years after implantation, such as thrombus formation that can trigger stroke or bleeding complications.

“With VADs, the pumping of the blood causes high-fluid shear stress, which damages the cellular components of the blood,” says Graham Foster, chief technology officer and co-founder of United Kingdom-based Calon Cardio-Technology Ltd., the developer of the MiniVAD. “We have been able to match the size and weight of the smallest existing VADs, while at the same time making a significant improvement in efficiency and blood-handling capability. By having a radically different layout, we believe our device will be substantially gentler on blood flow.”

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