Rcadia Medical Imaging announced that the company has been granted four patents by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) covering technology for its COR Analyser System. The COR Analyser performs fully automatic analysis of coronary CT Angiography (cCTA) studies to accelerate emergency department triage of suspected Coronary Artery Disease (CAD) patients and optimize cardiology and radiology department workflow. The System is marketed in the US and distributed through an agreement with Siemens Healthcare.

“The COR Analyser is a powerful decision support tool which has shown great potential in clinical trials and routine use to reduce unnecessary admissions and shorten time to treatment,” said Shai Levanon, president and CEO of Rcadia. “The patents strengthen the intellectual property position around this innovative system.” He noted that the COR Analyzer is the first of a new category of software applications to broadly enable the use of advanced imaging technologies in emergency medicine to improve care and reduce costs.

The four patents broadly cover methods and algorithms for automated analysis of coronary CT angiography studies and detection of pathologies in coronary arteries. The patents also cover methods for results visualization and automatic assessment of study quality. In addition, the methods are extended to cover the automatic interpretation of triple rule out studies. Triage of suspected CAD patients represents a major clinical and healthcare economic challenge in the US.

An estimated six million patients enter the ED in the US each year with chest pain. Because current diagnostic techniques are often equivocal, an estimated two million, primarily low risk patients, are admitted to the hospital for further testing at an annual cost of $ 10-$ 13 billion. In an estimated 85 per cent of these patients, an acute coronary event is subsequently ruled out.

Rcadia Medical Imaging develops and markets automated image processing software products for blood vessel analysis in patients with suspected cardiovascular disease.