News Release

September 18, 2006

Contact: Maureen McGuire, 860-679-4523
e-mail: mmcguire@nso.uchc.edu

Seeing into the Heart

Advanced Technology to Help Patients with Heart Failure is Available at the Pat and Jim Calhoun Cardiology Center – One of the First Sites in the Country

FARMINGTON, CONN. – The technology that helps satellites see through mist and clouds is now helping a cardiologist at the University of Connecticut Health Center see through flowing blood while implanting sophisticated pacemakers to treat heart failure.

“Using a special catheter-based system, we can now look directly into a major vein of the heart, the coronary sinus, when implanting biventricular pacemakers in patients with heart failure,” said Mathias Stoenescu, M.D., of the Health Center’s Pat and Jim Calhoun Cardiology Center and director of the new Heart Rhythm Program.

The new Coronary Sinus Access (CSA) System™ was created by CardioOptics, Inc., a Massachusetts-based corporation that develops visually-guided, therapeutic catheter systems for less invasive treatments of cardiovascular diseases. The Pat and Jim Calhoun Cardiology Center is among the first cardiology centers in the country to offer this technology.

As if placing the physician’s eyes on the tip of a catheter, CardioOptics’ SiteSeekir Trans-Blood Vision™ is the world’s first technology that sees through flowing blood and inside the heart and blood vessels to facilitate implantation of biventricular pacemaker wires, called leads. This new “eyes inside the heart” capability is embedded in the Coronary Sinus Access (CSA) system.

“The beauty of biventricular pacemakers is that they pace both sides of the heart simultaneously,” Dr. Stoenescu said, noting that these devices also include ICDs that deliver shocks to the heart to correct life-threatening heart beat irregularities.

Biventricular pacemakers use leads which are similar to those used for standard pacemakers. However, they uniquely require a third lead which is implanted in the coronary sinus to deliver electrical impulses to control the rhythm of the left ventricle, the heart’s largest pumping chamber.

The CSA system assists with the navigation of the coronary sinus when placing the third lead, which is the most technically challenging and time-consuming aspect of the procedure.

“During the procedure, the CSA system filters out the red color of the blood, allowing us to see through the coronary sinus – it’s like looking through water,” Dr. Stoenescu added.

“Millions of Americans have been diagnosed with heart failure and hundreds of thousands more develop the disease each year,” said Todd F. Davenport, President and CEO of CardioOptics. “Biventricular pacemakers have been proven to provide effective therapy in treating heart failure. The CSA System’s unique capability of seeing through blood and allowing physicians to visualize inside the coronary sinus in real time is an important break through in helping them successfully perform these implant procedures.”

Proven Technology
The basic physics behind the CSA system go back to work done in the early 20th century by Austrian scientist Gustav Mie, who published work on the interaction between light waves and particles when they are approximately the same size. This original work has been used by the Hubble telescope to see through dust in space. The theory teaches that one can see through an otherwise translucent media filled with particles by adjusting the wavelength of light into the infrared band.

Expected Increase in Demand
The American Heart Association estimates that nearly 5 million Americans are living with heart failure and 550,000 new cases are diagnosed each year.

“The demand for biventricular pacemakers is expected to increase. We’re delighted to be among the first hospitals in the country, and the first in Connecticut, to offer this high tech service to patients,” added Bruce Liang, M.D., director of the Pat and Jim Calhoun Cardiology Center.

About CardioOptics
CardioOptics, Inc., a privately held corporation, is headquartered in Wilmington, Massachusetts and has a technology development office in Boulder, Colorado. The Company develops and commercializes unique visually-guided catheter systems for the less invasive treatment of heart failure and other cardiovascular diseases. These systems leverage CardioOptics’ revolutionary SiteSeekir™ Trans-Blood Vision platform technology, which holds the promise of significantly improving the quality of care for patients suffering from cardiovascular disease.

CardioOptics, CSA System, SiteSeekir, and Trans-Blood Vision, are trademarks of Cardio-Optics, Inc.

U.S. 6,178,346; Additional patents pending.

Federal (USA) law restricts CardioOptics’ devices to use by or on the order of a physician.

The University of Connecticut Health Center includes the schools of medicine and dental medicine, John Dempsey Hospital, the UConn Medical Group and University Dentists. Founded in 1961, the Health Center pursues a mission of providing outstanding health care education in an environment of exemplary patient care, research and public service. To learn more about the UConn Health Center, visit our website at www.uchc.edu.

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