Cardiovascular imaging device maker Infraredx (Burlington, MA) will collaborate with Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH; Boston, MA) and coronary imaging researcher Gary Tearney, MD, Ph.D., professor of pathology at Harvard Medical School, Mike and Sue Hazard Family MGH Research Scholar, and founder of the Tearney Lab at the Wellman Center for Photomedicine at MGH. Tearney is best known for pioneering research efforts developing optical coherence tomography (OCT) imaging, which uses light scattering to image coronary arteries.
Infraredx and Tearney first collaborated over a decade ago on the development of the company's near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) technology, which is now integrated into the company's dual-modality intravascular TVC Imaging System. This system is reportedly the only FDA-cleared technology using NIRS and providing vessel structure information using intravascular ultrasound (IVUS) to rapidly, specifically, and reliably identify lipid core plaques, which are known to complicate stenting procedures and suspected to be the vulnerable plaques that cause most heart attacks.
The multi-year collaboration will focus on research and development of new and combination technologies that aim to provide enhanced information about coronary disease in patients.
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