IIT Madras researchers develop easy-to-use device to assess blood vessel health

Researchers at Indian Institute of Technology (IIT), Madras, have developed a novel, non-invasive device to assess the health and age of blood vessels and thereby provide early screening for cardiovascular diseases.

Called ARTSENS, the device has been developed by Healthcare Technology Innovation Centre at IIT Madras. It is an easy-to-use device, as it has been designed such that it can be used in routine medical examination by even non-experts, to assess and predict vascular health. It is powered by a proprietary non-imaging probe and an intelligent computing platform.

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The IIT Madras team plans to deploy this device to conduct over a million vascular screenings per year. The product is ready for technology transfer and commercialisation after extensive testing. The device has been assessed on more than 5,000 human subjects. The technology already has five utility patents in the US, European Union and India, 10 design patents and awaits awarding of 28 patents in various jurisdictions.

The technology and field results of this device have been published in over 100 scientific peer-reviewed publications. The research was led by Dr Jayaraj Joseph, Assistant Professor, Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Madras. The paper in the Journal of Hypertension was co-authored by Dr PM Nabeel, Lead Research Scientist, HTIC-IIT Madras, V Raj Kiran, PhD Scholar, Department of Electrical Engineering, IIT Madras, and Dr Jayaraj Joseph.

Despite tremendous improvements in treatments and procedures, heart and blood vessel-related diseases continue to be the leading cause of death throughout the world. Early detection and timely intervention is the key.

Highlighting the unique features of ARTSENS, Dr Jayaraj Joseph said, “Reliable assessment of vascular health requires a measurement to be performed directly on the blood vessel walls and not on the skin surface. Our ARTSENS device can assess the effect of molecular and protein level changes in the vessel wall caused due to disease and ageing, by measuring the material property in a completely non-invasive and accurate manner.”

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ARTSENS has been approved for clinical studies in India, US, and Europe. An extensive clinical study is underway at AIIMS New Delhi. Scientists at Radboud University Medical Center, The Netherlands, are using this device to investigate the association between arterial age, physical (in) activity, and cardiovascular events.

One of the main causes of cardiovascular diseases is the loss of flexibility and suppleness of the blood vessels of the body due to the cellular and molecular changes in the arterial wall, which is often followed deposition of plaque. When the artery becomes stiff and ages prematurely, the risks of cardiovascular events increase. Another marker of cardiovascular diseases is central blood pressure.