New Biocompatible Embolic Device to Control Blood Flow & Treat Tumors Presented at the Leipzig Interventional Congress (LINC)

    LEIPZIG, GERMANY, February 01, 2018 /24-7PressRelease/ -- Two scientific abstracts of a new vascular embolic device were presented this week at the 2018 Leipzig Interventional Congress in Leipzig, Germany: A Biomimetic, In Situ Setting Embolization Agent and A Novel Embolic with Minimal Catheter Adhesion Properties.

"GPX is a biocompatible gel-particle embolic device that transforms from low-viscosity particles in a syringe to a solid particle after injection into a vessel," said Jihad Mustapha, MD, FACC, interventional cardiologist at the Advance Cardiac and Vascular Amputation Prevention Center, Grand Rapids, Michigan, "It is water-based, does not polymerize or precipitate, and is designed to deliver new control & safety for embolization procedures."

Therapeutic embolization is performed to stop or slow arterial or venous blood flow into certain organs or anomalies to control bleeding; treat aneurysms; seal arterial venous malformations; selectively block blood flow into the prostate, uterine fibroids, and other organs/conditions; and/or de-vascularize certain tumors to starve them of blood supply and ultimately kill the tumor.

"The data is exciting. Some embolics stick to catheters during delivery and there have been a number of procedures where catheters are accidentally 'glued' into the body," said George Adams, MD, FACC Director, Cardiovascular and Peripheral Vascular Research, Rex Hospital; Associate Professor, Cardiology, UNC School of Medicine, "This GPX data confirmed that a catheter could be left in the body, with embolic material around it, for hours without risk of catheter entrapment. This may bring new precision, flexibility, and safety to embolic delivery."

Embolic devices include particulates, coils, and liquids/glues. Particulates, sometimes referred to as beads, are injected thorough catheters, flow downstream with the blood flow, and can embolize large spaces. But, particles are hard to control and do not allow the clinician to create a plug. Metallic coils can create a plug to occlude a wide variety of vessels, but lack precision and may require numerous expensive deployments to occlude. Liquid embolics, including glues, have advantages for certain procedures, but are associated with clumping and accidentally entrapping catheters in the body that can be catastrophic for the patient.

Fluidx Medical Technology is a medical device company based in Park City, Utah USA that develops the GPX gel-coated embolic device. GPX is under development and not FDA cleared or CE-marked at this time.

Contacts
David Blossom or Carmen Aguilera
1-954-534-9345
[email protected]

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