Solution - Cordex Systems

The Diseased Endothelium

What we measure

The Cordex SmartCuff is a novel technology that measures an important metric of vascular health – a metric that we have known about for more than 100 years but have never had a practical way of measuring it.

Monitor health and performance

Our vision is to potentially use the SmartCuff to not only monitor responses to risk factor treatment but also use it to monitor athletic performance and injury recovery. Nitric Oxide is a powerful dilator of blood vessels and enhances the performance of athletes and helps them recover from injury. Nitric Oxide can be taken as a supplement or in the form of L-Arginine, its precursor. We can potentially use the measurement of endothelial function as a biometric to give athletes feedback on which exercise regimen optimized their nitric oxide output and vasodilation to their muscles. Future studies on this aspect are planned.

Blood Vessel Health

We can potentially use the SmartCuff technology to monitor changes in your blood vessel health as you take your medicines to treat your risk factors for heart disease and stroke and/or engage in healthy lifestyle choices and activities. Interventional studies will be undertaken as part of our FDA approval process.

Monitor Other Diseases

We can also potentially use the SmartCuff (pending studies) to monitor other diseases that involve endothelial function/dysfunction as their etiology or diseases that cause endothelial dysfunction. Diseases such as Obesity, Fatty Liver Disease (NASH – Non-Alcoholic SteatoHepatitis), Kidney Disease, Pre-eclampsia in pregnant women, dementia, COVID-19, rheumatoid arthritis, autoimmune diseases.

Benefits

Non-invasive – Low-risk class II device

Safe – Non-imaging, non-radiating, can be used on pregnant women and children

Simple and easy – Does not require a physician to perform the test

Quick – 6-minute test with immediate results (Point-of-Care testing)

Fits workflow – Portable device means patients don’t need to leave the exam room for testing

Click-charge recurring revenue model – By selling tests, not devices and using existing billing codes and direct patient pay models

How it works

The device comes with 2 attachments – a standard blood pressure (BP) cuff in 3 sizes (pediatric, regular and large) and a pulse oximeter in 3 sizes (pediatric, regular and large).
The operator places the cuff on your upper arm like an ordinary cuff and a pulse oximeter on one of the fingers of your hand of the same arm.
The operator presses a “start” button on the device’s touchscreen and that’s it – no further action is needed to perform the test. Simple!
The BP cuff will inflate and then deflate automatically within a few seconds. During the deflation phase, the proprietary algorithm will use the cuff as a linear sensor to bio-hack your pulses at 200 data points per second as they travel out from underneath the cuff. The algorithm will then calculate your unique vascular compliance or degree of blood vessel stiffness. This is considered you “baseline reading”.
The cuff will then automatically inflate a second time and will stay inflated for 5 minutes. During this 5-minute hold, your endothelial lining will start to produce Nitric Oxide (and other substances) that will cause your artery to dilate so that when the cuff deflates after the 5 minute hold we can assess how much dilation occurred. The cuff deflates automatically after 5 minutes and again the algorithm will take another 200 data points per second of information from the arterial pulse to determine your vascular compliance.
The algorithm, within a few seconds, measures the response of your arteries after both deflations (baseline and after the 5 minute hold) and compares them to one another to assess how non-compliant (stiff) your arteries are. The stiffer your arteries are the more diseased or unhealthy your endothelium is, as the endothelium is responsible for regulating vasomotor tone (compliance/stiffness) of your arteries. In this way we can quantify the degree of arterial stiffness and potentially monitor changes in it as you respond to therapies to treat your cardiovascular risk factors.
Since endothelial dysfunction is systemic, if you have it in your arm (brachial artery) you have it throughout your entire vascular system including the arteries of your heart (coronary arteries).