| FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE MARCH 15, 2001 |
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COMPANY CONTACT: Irene Paigah, Media Relations |
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BioZ Pilot Program to Improve End Stage Renal Disease for New Dialysis Product
Chronic kidney failure affects more than one million individuals worldwide, with proper treatment requiring dialysis up to three times weekly. The dialysis market has been expanding at the rate of seven percent per annum. According to the American Heart Association and National Kidney Foundation (NKF), cardiovascular events account for 50 percent of deaths in dialysis patients. This has led the National Institute of Health and NKF to publicize concerns that hypertension (high blood pressure) and heart failure are not being adequately treated in many dialysis patients and should be carefully monitored at the initiation of each dialysis treatment. The BioZ has been instrumental in the treatment of hypertension and heart failure and is being utilized by leading cardiologists and technologically-advanced medical facilities, including Texas Heart Institute, Tulane Medical Center, Arizona Heart Institute and the Mayo Clinic. Commenting on the Agreement with the Company, John E. Strobeck, M.D., Ph.D., President of the HLAA and Co-Editor in Chief of Congestive Heart Failure, stated, "We believe that optimum reduction of dialysis cardiac morbidity and mortality begins with aggressive identification and management of the patients who are at high risk for cardiovascular events. Traditionally, nephrologists have focused on the treatment of kidney disease and have not played a central role in the cardiovascular assessment and treatment of their patients. Our vision is to extend cardiac evaluation and disease management into the dialysis setting, thereby eliminating the need for patients to make special trips to their cardiologists and potentially preventing urgent trips to the emergency room for preventable cardiac events." HLLA's DiTEC™ (Diagnostic, Treatment and Education of Cardiac Disease) program is designed to provide sophisticated cardiovascular diagnosis, treatment guidelines, and education for dialysis patients. The BioZ will be utilized in the DiTEC program to detect improvement or deterioration and to guide drug or dialysis therapy. The program provides end stage renal disease patients with the latest in noninvasive ICG technology to help improve their care and outcomes. Michael K. Perry, CardioDynamics' Chief Executive Officer, added, "We are very pleased to partner with HLAA in its vision to significantly advance the care of dialysis patients. The BioZ will empower renal and cardiac physicians with the vital hemodynamic data they need to assess, diagnose, and aggressively treat cardiovascular disease in dialysis patients. We project the dialysis market has the potential to generate over $100 million in recurring annual revenue, and by entering this market, we broaden our reach and continue to establish our proprietary ICG technology as the standard of care." The Company also announced plans to file for FDA 510(k) clearance for its new dialysis monitoring system, which will transmit hemodynamic data via the Internet. Discussions are taking place with Internet-based monitoring companies for inclusion of the BioZ's ICG technology in their product offerings. The Heart-Lung Associates of America, PC, Hawthorne, New Jersey, provides patients and physicians with state-of-the-art programs in cardiopulmonary disease prevention, urgent cardiopulmonary care, cardiopulmonary consultative services, cardiovascular and pulmonary diagnostic testing, and sophisticated cardiac and pulmonary treatments. The unique and comprehensive array of services provides stability to the most severely ill patients allowing them to be cared for primarily as outpatients and avoiding unnecessary hospitalization. For additional information, please refer to the company's Web site at www.heart-lungassociates.com. CardioDynamics, with headquarters in San Diego, is a medical technology and information solutions company committed to fundamentally changing the way hemodynamic monitoring is performed in healthcare. The Company's primary products, the BioZ Systems, utilize proprietary BioZ Impedance Cardiography (ICG) technology to noninvasively provide medical professionals with hemodynamic data not previously available in the physician's office and many hospital settings. Just as Electrocardiography (ECG) measures the heart's electrical characteristics, ICG makes it possible to noninvasively measure the heart's mechanical (blood flow) characteristics. Physicians around the world are currently using the BioZ products, including major medical centers such as the Mayo Clinic (Rochester), Stanford University School of Medicine (Palo Alto), University of California San Francisco (San Francisco), Yale New Haven Hospital (New Haven), and Baylor College of Medicine (Houston). The worldwide market potential for BioZ products is estimated to be $5 billion, together with an additional $800 million in recurring annual revenue for disposables. For additional information, please refer to the company's Web site at www.cdic.com. Forward-Looking (Safe Harbor) Statement: |