ABMI

ABMI, a fascinating Start-Up

The company is a spin-off of five institutions: the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology (EPFL) in Lausanne, the University of Lausanne, the University of Geneva, and the University Hospitals of Lausanne (CHUV) and Geneva (HUG). These five institutions have collaborated in an academic biomedical research project funded by the Cantons of Geneva and Vaud from 1999 to 2002.

The presently active ABMI founders have collaborated in this academic research project, and have established a start-up company in order to bring innovations to the market. ABMI has licensed the software produced by the research project, as well as its in-vitro simulator, and works closely with the participating institutions that continue to contribute to the development of its family of products. One of the academic institutions (CHUV) became ABMI's first customer, in 2004.


Profile

HISTORY: ABMI was founded in Jan 2003, as a spin-off of five Swiss academic institutions after a 3-year phase of fundamental research.

MARKET: Stroke is a leading cause of disability and death. Practitioners lack monitoring systems for acute and preventive stroke care. This niche market is estimated to be worth 300-500 millions CHF over the next 10 years, with a rapid expansion.

BUSINESS OVERVIEW: ABMI develops markets and sells custom and OEM monitoring systems for the prevention and treatment of stroke. Application domains include brain monitoring, neuroprotection during heart and vascular surgery and transcutaneous stenting, acute stroke care and cerebral 3D dynamic vascular imaging.

PRODUCTS: An incremental line of custom and OEM products in Doppler ultrasound, ranging from off-line embolization analysis software to automated, portable 3-D imaging of cerebral blood flows.


Core Business

ABMI’s core business consists of the acquisition, the processing, the analysis and the extraction of clinical knowledge from biomedical signals.

The company's core capabilities are in

• advanced signal processing, expert systems, software, and
• signal acquisition devices,

that are being increasingly integrated within

• complete, turn-key and/or OEM packaged solutions for hospitals and private practices.

Expert system software and clinical data contain the essence of the added value proposed by ABMI, and are the principal driving force supporting ABMI’s growth.



Typical applications of ABMI's technology

Peri-operative cerebral blood flow monitoring, e.g. in cardio-vascular open-sky surgery, and in particular in carotid endearterectomy (CAE):

• Real-time follow-up of arterial cerebral blood flow (brain perfusion assessment, pulsatility index, etc),
• Brain embolization monitoring,
• Accurate differentiation between brain emboli and artifacts (movements, voice, tissue vibrations, other devices)
• Accurate differentiation between solid and gaseous brain emboli,
• Sizing of solid brain emboli and estimation of total embolic load (total embolized volume),
• Adaptation of surgical procedures/techniques to reduce embolization (e.g. during artery dissection in CAE),
• Setting up of a treatment standard (through anti-coagulant and/or neuroprotective drugs) for stroke prevention during surgery,
• Brain embolization follow-up in the ICU/recovery room.

Blood flow monitoring during stenting/percutaneous procedures:
During e.g.:

• carotid stenting,
• aortic arch procedures and
• percutaneous interventions on the heart (valves stents, PFO closing, AF interventional treatment),

ABMI's systems allow to monitor brain embolization by solid debris/clots, upon differentiating these from contrast media and air bubbles signals.

Real-time monitoring of stroke patients in the Stroke Unit and acute stroke management (drugs, thrombolysis, etc),

• Real-time assessment of brain perfusion in the middle cerebral artery (MCA), and automatic alarms for the medical staff, in particular for patients suffering evolving stroke,
• Real-time assessment of drug effects on brain perfusion, and management of acute stroke care,
• Off-line and real-time monitoring of solid brain embolization, including the measurement of the total embolic load to the brain (as a function of the sizes of emboli),
• Correlation between cerebral perfusion and arterial pressure and/or ICP.

Pre- and post-operative evaluation of patients with carotid stenosis,
When coupled to the estimation of the degree of stenosis through ultrasound color imaging, ABMI software allows for

• a precise assessment of the arterial plaque vulnerability, thereby for a more precise indication for surgery (e.g. in the case carotid stenoses ? 75% caused by unstable, embolizing plaques),
• a precise post-op assessment of the remnant embolization after plaque removal, thus making it possible to better adapt medication,

Peri-operative blood flow/embolization monitoring and protection against fat emboli in large bone surgery/polytraumatic patients:

• Same techniques as in cardio-vascular surgery, but adapted to venous lung embolization (and to arterial brain embolization in PFO patients at risk),

Blood flow monitoring in extra-corporeal circulation (ECC) devices:

• Precise flow assessment in the ECC injection/rejection lines,
• Precise monitoring of solid/gaseous emboli hitting patient.

Blood flow monitoring in renal dialysis and emergency or microdialysis equipment:

• Precise flow assessment in the dialysis injection/rejection lines
• Precise monitoring of solid/gaseous emboli hitting patient
• Early warning and emergency device stopping in case of blood foaming (in particular for newly marketed, home-based unsupervised dialysis systems)

Monitoring of deep venous thrombosis (DVT) patients at risk of embolization:

• Monitoring and early diagnosis of venous embolism (and arterial embolism in case of a PFO) in DVT patients (e.g. portable devices in commercial planes for the prevention of the "economy class syndrome")