IVMD announces new patent filing for tissue blood flow
21 March 2005
INVERNESS, Scotland. IVMD, Inc. (OTCBB:IVVO) announced that it has filed
for a 12th patent for its medical diagnostic technology. The patent
application is for the sensitive measurement of blood flow in tissue and
includes the measurement of blood flow and concentration in skin and other
body tissue through the non-invasive use of magnetic fields.
John Fuller, President and CEO of IVMD, said: "This 12th generic patent
we have filed utilizing our technology is consistent with our strategy of
patenting broad areas so that we can create a number of different products,
each with large, global markets in the point of care arena. Our next steps
will be to find appropriate development partners to take this technology and
create ground-breaking products.
"Blood flow and concentration is an important consideration in many
diseases," Fuller said. For instance, skin blood flow testing is already in
use for some allergies and mental health conditions. In these cases a
reagent, applied to the skin, causes a blood flow change dependent upon
sensitivity to a particular condition. "Until now it was only possible to
measure this visually, or with expensive Doppler ultrasound or laser
measurement techniques. Hence the measurement is either very imprecise or
prohibitively expensive to obtain," explained Fuller. He notes that IVMD
envisages devices developed from this patent can provide specific outputs
and be substantially less expensive and easier to use. "This can result in
products that will be suitable for point of care use for a much larger
patient population."
One example of the potential diagnostic use of this technology could be
in the much earlier and accurate detection of schizophrenia. The prevalence
rate for schizophrenia is approximately 1.1 percent of the population 18
years or older. This means that at any one time as many as 51 million people
worldwide suffer from schizophrenia. Other examples could include a test for
the effectiveness of anti-inflammatory drugs.
To top |