New Findings Reported by TJ Gan and Authors from Duke Anesthesiology Demonstrate Efficacy of Cheetah Medical's NICOM® Bioreactance® Technology to Guide Goal Directed Intraoperative Therapy

TEL-AVIV, Israel and VANCOUVER, Washington, October 17, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

-The 100% non-invasive Cheetah NICOM performed similarly to legacy esophageal Doppler monitoring and may enable adoption of protocols that markedly reduce complications of surgery and hospital stay-

Results from a study validating Cheetah Medical's non-invasive NICOM system for use in surgery to guide fluid management were presented October 16 at the 2011 American Society of Anesthesiologists Annual Meeting in Chicago. This new study complements a strong body of evidence that demonstrates that when anesthesiologists base delivery of intravenous fluids on repetitive measurements of cardiac output, they are able to significantly reduce a host of complications associated with surgery and the length of hospital stay. This guided approach to deliver fluids is known as Goal Directed Therapy (GDT).

The Cheetah NICOM has been validated to provide highly accurate continuous hemodynamic information that can be reliably used to guide fluid management and support GDT. In this study, Duke Anesthesia researchers used Cheetah Medical's non-invasive NICOM^® cardiac output & hemodynamic monitoring system alongside the invasive legacy transesophageal Doppler. Study investigators compared readings obtained with the legacy system to the NICOM in 61 patients as they underwent major surgery and found a consistent and significant correlation between both devices' readings and directions on fluid management. In addition, results indicated that the invasive Doppler device was twice as likely to fail to provide readings during the case for technical reasons as compared to the non-invasive NICOM.

"The results from this study add to a large body of evidence showing that perioperative Goal Directed Therapy using non-invasive hemodynamic monitors should be considered in patients undergoing major surgery or in high risk patients. This strategy improves patient outcomes and reduces length of hospital stay," said Tong J. Gan, MD Professor of Anesthesiology and Vice Chair for Clinical Research at Duke University Medical Center and the study's Principal Investigator. "A non-invasive hemodynamic monitor provides an option that could make monitoring simpler during surgery."

In addition to compelling clinical advantages to the patient, GDT has been shown to deliver marked cost reductions and efficiency improvements to the healthcare system. As a result, numerous healthcare authorities recommend adoption of GDT protocols, including the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services (CMS), the UK National Health Service (NHS), the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality (AHRQ) and the National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence (NICE). However, close to 20 years after the significant value of GDT protocols was established using Doppler probes which are inserted into the patient's esophagus, GDT is used in just a fraction of major surgical procedures. In a recent survey of hundreds of American and European anesthesiologists, more than 90% conveyed that their current operative fluid management could be improved^[1]. The study found a considerable gap between evidence regarding the benefits of GDT and the clinical utilization of invasive technologies that limit practical implementation.

"We are pleased with the Duke study findings and hope they will encourage use of Cheetah's NICOM system in providing GDT to advance the quality of care for significantly more patients who are not benefiting from these approaches today," said Yoav Avidor, MD, CEO of Cheetah Medical. "Further, we believe that our technology may better enable hospitals to deal with the rising costs of treating certain surgical complications that can be mitigated with GDT and empower standardization as more clinicians deliver this state of the art clinical practice."

About Cheetah Medical

Cheetah Medical's NICOM^® Noninvasive Cardiac Output and Hemodynamic Monitoring System uses the company's proprietary BIOREACTANCE^® Technology to deliver continuous, accurate, noninvasive cardiac output (CO) and other vital hemodynamic monitoring parameters, useful for fluid management and drug titration. The system is US FDA cleared and CE Marked, and since its commercial launch in 2008 has been adopted by a growing number of clinicians worldwide. Cheetah Medical headquarters is located in Tel-Aviv, Israel and its United States headquarters is located in Vancouver, Washington. For more information, visit our website at http://www.cheetah-medical.com.

1. Cannesson M, Pestel G, Ricks C, et al. Hemodynamic monitoring and management in patients undergoing high risk surgery: a survey among North American and European anesthesiologists. Critical Care, 2011;15(4):R197.

For further information contact:
Paul Kidwell
paulkidwell@comcast.net
+1-617-680-1088