ArterioVision provides a direct measurement of atherosclerosis before it causes these “symptoms” by safely and painlessly measuring the thickness of the first two layers of the carotid artery wall using an ultrasound procedure and advanced image-analysis software. The carotid artery, located on both sides of the neck, is the largest artery that is near the surface of the skin. It supplies blood to the brain, and it can therefore be examined noninvasively. ArterioVision essentially performs a skin surface imaging “biopsy” to examine the arterial wall.
Transcript
00:00:01 [Music] when NASA spacecraft begin sending back photos to Earth in the 1960s researchers at the jet propulsion laboratory wanted to improve what they were seeing we had to develop uh really a new software a new software operating system because they're just more than any available and they led us to development
00:00:27 of a whole library of programs that could New Image manipulation could compensate for calibration errors and compensate for losses that you get from the camera they invented a video Imaging communication and retrieval software called viar with upgrades over the years vicar became more accurate allowing NASA to learn more about our solar system and creating a powerful tool with other
00:00:51 potential uses that led both Bob Nathan and myself who have always been interested in biomedical to see if these methods could be used for uh medical work Gary F Thompson has a strong family history of heart disease a marthon runner for many years Thompson entered a race to mark his 50th birthday by mile 20 he was in trouble a heart attack although Thompson had recently received
00:01:20 a clean bill of health from his doctors something was missed in his exams I began a quest and and to try and find out what was out there that might be a better uh device to identify people at risk and help treat them as well through a friend he learned about viar now being used in a clinical trial at the University of Southern California's kek school of medicine without revealing any
00:01:44 of his own history Thompson took the test in 15 minutes uh they told me I needed to see the doctor right away I asked them why and they said well you have serious uh uh evidence of heart disease and you need to see a physician right away the new device did what all the other tests had failed to do eventually Thompson licensed the NASA technology and started a company medical
00:02:08 Technologies International or MTI he worked with Selzer and the kek researchers to adopt the technology for diagnostic medical use the biomedical and the technical coming together um in one package is what ultimately led to the development of this uh new technique the software now part of mti's attero vision test takes ultrasound images of the first two layers of the kateed
00:02:31 arteries and analyzes them the results identify the risk for the major cause of heart attack and strokes AOL sclerosis aeral vision is safe and relatively inexpensive it can distinguish between 256 different Shades of Gray and has the most accurate resolution available for this type of testing without the technology that was developed at JPL uh in terms of image processing um the kind
00:02:56 of accuracy and the kind of reproducibility that we get wouldn't be feasible Atuo Vision received FDA clearance and is now in doctor's offices around the country for patients at risk it's ideal when you show them a picture of one of their arteries and how much plets got in it and tell them that if this process continues that that plaque is going to cause stroke or heart attack
00:03:21 I think you have a much greater influence on that individual understanding their disease following recommendations and making changes in their life to improve their risk factors today NASA technology has new meaning for Gary F Thompson I still have tremendous wonderment about what's going on in space but I smile more often now when I look up to it because I know what
00:03:42 we're doing in space is helping us here on Earth
