External Mechancial Heart Valve Monitor

[Les]

Hello All,
It's been two days since I requested information from Cardiosignal and they have yet to respond. Perhaps if they were asked by several more of us, it would demand attention. In the meantime, I will advise if I receive anything. Take care!
___________________
Les AVR '93 / '95

 

[Dave M]

I received the following response from the company via email:

thank you very much for your interest in ThromboCheck. We are still in thr process of clinical studies and product certification. The device will be available from August this year. You are kindly asked for registering you at our homepage www.cardiosignal.de. Thus we can inform you about the latest news around the device and the exact date of the product launch in your country. The registration form will be available from 17th March at our homepage.
Best regards,
Dr. Andreas Brensing

 

[Rain]

clinical studies

clinical studies

I got that same exact e-mail from them this morning.

 

[ShezaGirlie]

Any ideas regarding the best way??

Any ideas regarding the best way??

I received the following e-mail. Any comments?


Thank you very much for your e-mail. Concerning our new product ThromboCheck we are still in the process of clinical studies and product certification. The device will be available in August this year. I visited your homepage www.valvereplacement.com. We are most interested to come into contact with your members. May be we can inform your members at your forum site about the latest news and give a device presentation at the heart link site. Please send me your ideas about the best way. From 17th of March patients and physicians can register themself on our homepage www.cardiosignal.de to get further information.
Best regards
Andreas

Dr. Andreas Brensing
CARDIOSIGNAL GmbH
Meiendorfer Str. 205 (Industriepark G28 - 30)
D-22145 Hamburg / Germany
Phone: +49 40 67998080
Fax: +49 40 67998081
[email protected]

You are kindly asked for registering you at our homepage www.cardiosignal.de. Thus we can inform you about the latest news around the device and the exact date of the product launch in your country. The registration form will be available from 17th March at our homepage.
Best regards,
Dr. Andreas Brensing

 

[Ross]

Better get Hank involved on this and get his input. Rob, care to get in touch with the boss?

 

[Perrster]

Good idea!

Good idea!

Good idear there, Mr. Ross.

Perhaps you could also get Hank to dispense with the subject of the Columbia disaster on the front page? It's over now and I don't think we should be reminded of it anymore (not that we'll ever forget, but it just doesn't seem to fit here anymore).

The photo makes the site come up real slow unless one is using DSL or Cable modems. I use both and will note that the DSL even lumbers with this opening page. Cable has no problem. I can't even imagine how slow it is with dial-up ISP's?

The CardioSignal monitor seems interesting enough to watch the developments.

Thanks.

 

[Ross]

Perry your the second person that's approached about the main page. I keep pestering Hank with little details and I'm afraid he's gonna quit reading my PM's. I'm still waiting to have my private message tracking ability to be restored. hint hint

Anyway this is why I'm hoping someone else will start PM'ing him and get him involved with the forum again.

 

[RobThatsMe]

Hi,

Thanks "Girlie" for the great update from them on your posting. It sounds to me like this truly does deserve further monitoring or their progress.

Ross and Perry, I will try to reach Hank about their request. Hopefully Hank is lurking on here and will grace us with some insite regarding it.

UPDATE on that. I tried calling Hank, but I got a " Your call cannot be completed" message. Hmm.. he does also have an IRQ. Maybe one of the others can reach him and ask him to read "Girlie"s post from them.

Hmmm,, I wonder how well it works to detect sound frequencies if you have more than one mechanical valve?

Well, If any of us receives any additional information from them, please post it here.

Thanks ya'll,

Rob

 

[Perrster]

Clicking in Unison

Clicking in Unison

Yeah, Rob, good question. As a double clicker, I wonder what my decibels or "music score" would read?

Not to dump on our dear Gina, but I know she's going to Arizona later this month and is planning to meet with Mr. Hank about the Chicago Reunion.

Perhaps she can straighten these things out?

Talk to her about it, Ross.

BTW, Ross: how the heck are you feeling these days? You had a very difficult time of it and I wonder if you're back to normal (whatever normal is)?

Cheers!

 

[John Cochran]

Just an idea to float

Just an idea to float

I was thinking about how important this forum has become to so many people, and am just a tad concerned about it being "invaded" by companies interesting in promoting their products, no matter how good or bad they might be. Hank, as the founder and maintainer of ValveReplacement.com, definitely should decide as to the appropriateness/desirability of that happening. Note that several of us here (myself included) have made no attempt at anonymity, and I'm not sure I want to get "profiled" and on the mailing list of a bunch of companies.

As far as general site maintenance and upgrades, Hank is an unpaid volunteer, and I'm hesitant to "nag" him about anything.

However, it did dawn on me that a number of us here are or have been professional software/Internet geeks and geekettes, and might find a way, with Hank's blessing, to form an adjunct volunteer maintenance and/or steering committee. I personally would be more than willing to "pay back" some time and effort for all the good done by this site.

What do you all think?

--John

 

[LUVMyBirman]

Yikes, straighten things out! You all can feel free to complie a list of requests. Ross would you like to collect the requests?

Maybe if I have a list for Hank...... he can knock off a few in his "spare time". What's that anyway?

Rob, on the Thrombocheck...please see if the company would be interested in speaking at our main dinner in August. We had an offer from Greg in Florida (where is thay guy?) to organize speakers for the group. If Greg is not able to handle this we need someone to take care of the corporate sponsors for us. Any takers? Send me a PM!

Thanks....

 

[Johnny Stephens]

Great idea John, count me in as a volunteer to help with the site...I'm an IT geek myself . It's absolutely Hank's call in my book, but I'd be happy to help if he needs it.

 

[RobThatsMe]

Hi,

I sent a letter to them asking for more information, and also mentioned the Chicago event coming up in August. If they can not make it there, then perhaps they could provide a loaner for us to look at and demo. I will keep you informed of their repsonse.

It's amazing how many hits this thread has had, over 500 in such a short time. Hopefully if they visit here, they will notice the extreme interest in their product.

Hope everyone has a wonderful weekend! I am going to catch Sping fever today. It's going up to 75 degrees in Nashville. Yep, getting the rake, and gona get this yard into shape.

Rob

 

[Hank]

Hello Folks!! Yes - I am alive!

Hello Folks!! Yes - I am alive!

Hello Friends,

I apologize for my absence these past months. I have a ton of excuses, but I'll stick with the 60 hour work weeks and massive amounts of classes excuses.

This new product y'all have been talking about sounds great, however, I don't think we know enough information about it to make this site a shrine to its existence yet.

I am looking forward to seeing Gina and a bunch of the crew in a week or two here in AZ. It's pretty nasty here today - 80 degrees, clear, and sunny.

Please email me and/or PM me as often as you like. It doesn't bother me a bit. Ross has been trying to bug me to death, but he has not succeeded as of yet. I am here for y'all as much as I possibly can be.

 

[John Cochran]

Caveat Emptor

Caveat Emptor

"Let the buyer beware"

I am concerned about inviting a company to present to our group that has not yet had any clinical trials, has not proved the efficacy of concept, and has, as far as I have been able to ascertain, no support yet from the global community of cardiologists.

Signal processing is nothing new. If this concept were truly workable, i.e., if it could reliably and accurately predict impending valve failure and/or thromboembolitic events, why wouldn't the major players in the world be involved? Where is St. Jude, Medtronic, Carbomedics, and all the rest of the valve manufacturers, who would have tons to gain by making their valves even safer?

The following are my opinions, based on my own training and knowledge in the biomedical field: This is not new technology. This is not a new discovery. This is not a product that has been proved to work in any way shape or form in terms of detecting real valve problems. Is it an interesting concept? Sure. But the company behind it has no visible major corporate sponsors, no huge investors (I checked as best I could) and no endorsements by either the European Union nor the FDA.

I am not trying to rain on anybody's parade here, but if this company has endorsement of any recognized medical body in the world, I have not found it. If anybody has information to the contrary, please provide it.

--John

 

[RobThatsMe]

Hi Johnny,

I couldn't agree more. We should all be cautious of any new product that we use to monitor and make what we hope are sound judgements concerning our health management.

It is obvious that there is an interest in this product for those of us with mechanical heart valves. If this product does prove itself, then indeed it would be a welcome tool to have in our health care management programs.

As I mentioned earlier, I remain neutral on this product until further information is made available. As you say, "Buyer be Beware".

Rob

 

[LUVMyBirman]

"I am looking forward to seeing Gina and a bunch of the crew in a week or two here in AZ. It's pretty nasty here today - 80 degrees, clear, and sunny."

Hi Hank....great to see your ticking along with us here.

You know, your weather sounds so awful not sure I want to come to Phoenix.

It's 17 here tonight...talk about nasty. Looking forward to seeing you the family and everyone in a few weeks!

 

[Rain]

Dr. Andreas Brensing sent me this site to look at.

Dr. Andreas Brensing sent me this site to look at.

ThromboCheck-English.doc (27k), thrombo4b.tif (1000k)

He also told me that it works fine for people with atrail fib. and that the price would be between $700.00 and $1,000.00

I'm not sure that link worked, so here's what it says....

Hand-held and easy-to-use device for early detection of thrombosed mechanical heart valves

The development of heart valve prostheses made great progress in the recent years. Nevertheless, the risk of complications by thrombotic sedimentation after heart valve replacement is still significant. In most cases the thrombotic sedimentation on the prostheses is accompanied by a change of the characteristic valve-click intensity and spectra. In our studies at the heart center of Bad Oeynhausen, Germany, we demonstrated that even a small thrombotic deposition of the prostheses leads to a significant change of the valve-click signal, long before echo cardiographical conspicuousness appears. Our results correspond well with the observations of other research groups.

Our device ?THROMBOCHECK? uses the acoustic analysis of the valve-click for early non-invasive detection of thrombosed prosthetic heart valves. The apparatus is designated and constructed for the patients daily self-testing of the heart valve prostheses. An early detection of thrombotic sedimentation allows to remove the thrombus by medicaments or re-operation before menacing malfunctions of the heart valve or thrombembolic complications take place.

The apparatus must be placed for a short time (30 s) on the breast of the patient. It takes up a few valve-click samples. The finishing of the measurement is indicated in the display. Then the apparatus starts an automatic analysis of the click signals in the time and frequency domain and compares them with the patient?s individual reference-click. The display shows the information about the actual valve status. If the valve-click signals obtained suspicious changes with respect to the reference-click, the patient will be strongly suggested to visit a physician for further diagnose.

The size of the apparatus is comparable to a mobile phone. The measurement and computing unit, a battery, and the display is integrated, so no external connections or further equipment are needed.