InteliSpark client, Neurovascular Diagnostics wins a research grant from the National Institutes of Health (NIH) for phase I of their project to develop a “one-stop” diagnostic test that can detect intracranial aneurysms, as known as brain aneurysms, and determine the risk of rupture based on biomarkers in the blood.
Ruptured brain aneurysms are devastating for patients and may result in cardiac arrests, permanent neurological problems, brain damage, hemorrhaging, and death. Treatment costs are far more costly for ruptured than unruptured brain aneurysms. Therefore, diagnosis of unruptured brain aneurysms is crucial.
But not all aneurysms lead to rupture. So, healthcare providers attempt to measure the risk of rupture prior to any invasive or costly medical intervention. Yet, current imaging procedures that measure the risk of rupture, via the metric of size, are invasive, expensive, require the use of X-rays, and may lead to medical complications.
The New York based startup, Neurovascular Diagnostics, has identified gene expressions in the blood to identify dangerous brain aneurysms and hypothesize that these expressions may serve as a biomarker to determine rupture risk. In this phase I Small Business Innovation Research (SBIR) project, researchers will develop a “one-stop” test for both diagnosing and determining risk of rupture of brain aneurysms.
This low-cost novel medical technology will provide greater access for at-risk patients and potentially save millions of dollars in unnecessary imaging procedures and treatments for brain aneurysms.