World Hypertension Expert Partners with Leading Technology Innovator

February 12, 2008

For the person with high blood pressure, there is nothing so imperative as a diagnosis followed immediately by a treatment regimen that works. A partnership between Carlos M. Ferrario, M.D., director of the Hypertension and Vascular Research Center at Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center, and CardioDynamics (NASDAQ: CDIC), world leader in noninvasive measurement of heart blood flow and vascular tension, offers just that.
CardioDynamics’ gift to Ferrario’s center of its newest noninvasive Impedance Cardiography (ICG) Test machine and BioZ software for managing clinical and research data benefits patients with high blood pressure, heart failure, or shortness of breath due to cardiovascular disease.
“CardioDynamics is honored to know and to partner with Dr. Ferrario, a leading expert who has published more than 485 scientific papers, on his life-long quest to find better solutions for treating and preventing hypertension and cardiovascular disease,” said Rhonda Rhyne, company president. “Our ICG Test and BioZ diagnostic technology have revolutionized outcomes in the treatment of hypertension. This gift is to aid Dr. Ferrario’s ongoing research on this major public health problem.”
The new ICG Test technology, according to Ferrario, is another step toward the goal of personalized treatment for each patient. “The accuracy of this technology in monitoring specific factors in high blood pressure and cardiac function eliminates a lot of lost treatment time as a physician searches for the right medications for an individual patient. We are now able to target specific medications to a patient’s specific disease and get optimal results sooner. Quicker results mean higher patient confidence in the diagnosis and better compliance with the prescribed treatment.”
The ICG Test apparatus can be combined with the BioZ data management software to offer large-scale computation capability for use in clinical trials, when hundreds or even thousands of patients are being studied for the newest and most effective treatments. The combination of basic science research on the physiology of hypertension and clinical research of new treatments at centers such as the Hypertension and Vascular Research Center at Wake Forest Baptist drives the evolution of new technology toward best-practice standards that can then be applied in private physician offices and clinics on a cost-efficient basis by companies such as CardioDynamics.
The ICG Test is Medicare approved and covered by many private insurance carriers.

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Contact: Steve McCollum, (336) 716-4805, mccollum@wfubmc.edu, Office of Development and Alumni Affairs or H. Jeffrey Swaim, senior director of corporate and Foundation Relations, (336) 716-3040, hjswaim@wfubmc.edu or Jim Steele, Public Relations and Marketing, (336) 716-3487, jsteele@wfubmc.edu.

CardioDynamics (www.cdic.com) is an innovator for breakthrough, noninvasive diagnostic Impedance Cardiography (ICG). The company’s ICG systems are used by physicians around the world to battle the No. 1 killer of men and women—cardiovascular disease.

Wake Forest University Baptist Medical Center is an academic health system comprised of North Carolina Baptist Hospital, Brenner Children’s Hospital and Wake Forest University Health Sciences, which operates the university’s School of Medicine and Piedmont Triad Research Park. The system comprises 1,154 acute care, rehabilitation and long-term care beds and has been ranked as one of “America’s Best Hospitals” by U.S. News & World Report since 1993. Wake Forest Baptist is ranked 32nd in the nation by America’s Top Doctors for the number of its doctors considered best by their peers. The institution ranks in the top third in funding by the National Institutes of Health and fourth in the Southeastern United States in revenues from its licensed intellectual property.

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