NEW DEVICE COULD REVOLUTIONIZE OPEN-HEART SURGERY

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
(Free-Press-Release.com) April 1, 2009 -- “Pretty much all evil is generated by rejection in patients who have organ transplants.” says Dr. James B. Young, Chairman of the Division of Medicine at the Cleveland Clinic in Ohio.

Following a heart transplant, the body’s immune response seeks to eliminate the foreign object in its system. The most common way, currently, to assess organ rejection is through an endomyocardial biopsy, or EMB, which consists of inserting a pincer forceps through the jugular vein and removing several small samples of heart tissue from inside the heart.

“It’s certainly not a comfortable thing to go through”, says Joyce Rigsbee, who received her new heart back in 1994. “I’ve had my lung punctured [from biopsies] at least once and I think probably more than that, one time it was a week in bed at home with a stabbing pain going through my body every time I took a breath, and another time I was in the hospital with a stomach tube.”

Dr. Charles Richardson, President and CEO of TransWorld Heart hopes to change all that, “This is a technology that aside from eliminating the inconvenience of hospital stays and possible complications [from biopsies] is going to save lives because it can assess much faster and with greater accuracy whether or not a patient is experiencing rejection.”

It also has the capability to assist in monitoring the heart health of the nearly 500,000 people in the U.S. that undergo cardiac bypass surgery. “Especially since all the monitoring happens from home using a secure, wireless data connection, we really think that this has the potential to really make a difference in the quality of life in the patients who will receive this treatment. It’s going to help a lot of people,” Richardson notes. “Couple that with the staggering cost savings over EMB, and there’s really something to talk about.”

TransWorld Heart Corporation is a division of the TransWorld Med Family of Companies based in Charlotte, NC, found online at www.transworldmed.com. TransWorld Heart is aimed at improving the quality of life through innovative technology. TransWorld Heart has developed the SoulMate system which allows for real-time non-invasive monitoring of heart transplant patients. The SoulMate improves diagnostic capabilities and long-term patient care while reducing overall treatment expense.

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If you'd like more information about this topic, or to schedule an interview with TransWorld Heart, please call Frank Schwartz at (704) 543-3055 or e-mail Frank at fschwartz@transworldmed.com

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