CHICAGO — Software is helping doctors determine whether a patient could have another stroke.
VasSol’s Nova system works with MRI machines to provide a 360-degree model of a patient’s vascular anatomy, with the ability to see blood flow in each vessel. It’s being used in nearly 50 hospitals and imaging centers, including Northwestern Memorial Hospital and the University of Illinois at Chicago.
“It’s almost like if you put a radar gun on the street and a car is passing. You’re taking a slice of the speed as that car passes that point,” said Dr. Shyam Prabhakaran, associate professor at Northwestern University’s Feinberg School of Medicine.
The software gives doctors a 3D glimpse inside a patient’s blood vessels, showing volume, speed and direction of blood. The results help doctors decide if patients need treatment, either by medication or a procedure, VasSol CEO Chuck Doherty said. After treatment, they can be retested.
“We don’t have to perform brain surgery to check on this,” Doherty said.
The technology was developed in 1999 and received FDA approval in 2002.
The Nova technology was recently used during a six-year study of patients considered to be at risk of a recurrent stroke. Results of the blind, independent clinical trial, published in the February issue of JAMA Neurology, showed that patients who had a stroke in the back of their brains and who continued to have low blood flow in the area are at higher risk of a another stroke.
About a quarter of all 800,000 strokes in the U.S. each year are recurrent, according to the National Stroke Association website. Up to 80 percent of strokes are considered to be preventable with lifestyle changes and medical interventions.
The technology was commercialized by VasSol after being developed at UIC by Dr. Fady Charbel, a professor and head of the department of neurosurgery at UIC.
The company has also developed applications to measure blood-flow in vessels in the body — including in hands, lower extremities and kidneys.
Northwestern’s Prabhakaran said that he has studied blood flow and stroke risk prediction for 10 years, and that he is conducting a study using Nova and other technologies, which he expects will finish in 2019.
Prabhakaran said Nova helps physicians compare a patient’s blood flow statistics to those of a similar healthy person. Having that kind of information can help doctors determine whether a particular treatment or medication is having a positive effect.
The software “gives you a quantitative way to know that a treatment is actually working,” he said.
Dr. James Brorson, the medical director of the University of Chicago Medicine’s comprehensive stroke center, said the Nova scan can point out where the problem of low flow in patients, which can point to a higher risk of stroke.
Angioplasties or stent replacements can help blockages, Brorson said, but research hasn’t shown yet that those interventions are effective in lessening the risk of a stroke.
“Still, the information from Nova scanning might help in making these decisions, or in guiding how aggressively to apply standard medical treatments,” Brorson said.
About the Author
