Vicor’s PD2i Analyzer™ Expected to Enable Early Detection of Autonomic Nervous System Dysfunction
If you're a physician, you're well aware that Autonomic Nervous System Dysfunction / Diabetic Autonomic Neuropathy (DAN) is one of the most widespread and devastating challenges facing medicine today.
Yet if you're not a neurologist or don't see many diabetic patients, the idea of testing for DAN may seem beyond the typical scope of your practice. But recent innovations have made objective autonomic nervous system testing easy and affordable in any practice setting — and annual DAN testing is recommended for all diabetic patients by the American Diabetes Association.
Further, since diabetic autonomic neuropathy is gradual in onset, the disease may be fairly well advanced by the time symptoms are detectable by conventional means. Thus, tragically, treatment is often not commenced until the patient is already experiencing vision problems, incontinence or sexual dysfunction. At this point, nerve damage is well underway, and patients are at significantly increased risk of sudden cardiac death.
Clearly, a diagnostic is needed which can detect diabetic autonomic neuropathy long before nerve damage has occurred. Vicor believes that its easy-to-use PD2i Analyzer™ is that diagnostic.
A New Approach
After many years of painstaking research, Vicor succeeded in developing the PD2i® nonlinear algorithm, an unprecedentedly powerful means of evaluating heartrate variability and potentially the health of the human autonomic nervous system.
And unlike conventional tests which can only detect the nerve damage DAN leaves in its wake, the PD2i® nonlinear algorithm uses advanced mathematics to directly measure the health of a patient's autonomic system. A PD2i score can be simply and painlessly determined within minutes and may reveal if a patient has developed diabetic autonomic neuropathy, enabling doctors to intervene to protect their patients from further debilitating disease.
For a more detailed explanation of how the PD2i® nonlinear algorithm works, please see the PD2i Technology and Clinician pages. And to read some of Vicor’s original research, visit our Publications page.
Regulatory Status
Vicor’s PD2i Analyzer™ has already received FDA 510(k) marketing clearance as a measure of heartrate variability. CPT codes currently exist for physicians to be reimbursed by insurance carriers thus providing Vicor current revenue.
A Valuable Addition to Medical Practices
The PD2i Analyzer™ offers numerous advantages over competing diagnostics:
- better risk-stratification than conventional tests
- non-invasive
- performed on a resting patient by a nurse or technician
- uses inexpensive, non-proprietary EKG electrodes
- result in under twenty minutes
- easy to use; easy to interpret; simple binary result
- compact (no treadmill required)
- forgiving of data issues plaguing other diagnostics
- low up-front cost and low cost per-test
Learn More About Vicor’s PD2i Analyzer™
To find out more about Vicor’s PD2i Analyzer™ and how you can add it to your practice, contact Vicor at 877.528-PD2i (7324), or refer to our Contact page.
