With an emphasis on a cost effective, multimodality PAI system for screening, diagnosis and monitoring of carotid plaque vulnerability using innovative (optical) technology, the CVENT research and development has always been fully dedicated to create a beyond state-of-the-art change in healthcare delivery. The new probe is one in its kind and opens the doors for frequent clinical use of PAI for different applications. The CVENT consortium has shown to be able to create and translate new innovative technology and imaging methods all the way from the bench (development phase, experimental testing) to the bedsite, i.e. first clinical pilot studies in patients suffering from a plaque.
The CVENT strategy intertwines beyond-state-of-the-art R&D with strong stakeholder involvement and clear exploitation paths by the industrial partners. A cost-efficient point-of-care PAI system, able to provide morphological information about carotid plaque vulnerability, is highly innovative and will give ESAOTE a global top position in the vascular market. The strong industrial participation in the CVENT consortium is possible because each of the necessary optical and related components for the development of the PAI add-on have an intrinsic unique selling point. Specifically, these are: ultra-high-power pulsed diode laser (LUMIBIRD), highly efficient diode laser drivers (BrightLoop) and advanced diode laser diffractive optical beamforming (SILIOS). These components are pushed to the limits necessary to achieve our common goal on economical feasible simple plaque rupture detection. The intrinsic unique selling points open – next to the PAI add-on for ultrasound – new and profitable markets for each of the CVENT industrial partners. The same holds for the developments in signal processing, aimed at improving PAI quality. Speed-of-sound measurements and motion-compensated US are advances that will also be of interest for other US applications beyond PA.
The CVENT PAI system as an “US-system PAI add-on” can provide a revolutionary diagnostic approach for monitoring of carotid plaque vulnerability. As a result, it will fulfil an unmet clinical need and will be a unique selling point that will open additional markets on vascular ultrasound, but also on skin disease, burn wounds, and muscle imaging. Hence, there is in our CVENT consortium - next to the close involvement of vascular physicians - a strong cooperation with industrial and research partners to push PAI components and PAI signal processing to the limits of what is technically feasible and bring it into clinical application.
