Metrx supplies New Hampshire hospital with tools to escalate AAA research project

Medical Metrx Solutions (Metrx) will supply Dartmouth-Hitchcock Medical Center (Lebanon, N.H.) the technology needed to accelerate its multiple center clinical study evaluating the rupture risk of abdominal aortic aneurysms (AAA).

The company is providing the institution with its three-dimensional reconstruction and finite element analysis technology. In addition, Metrx plans on providing lab services with a web-based clinical tool so that participants can enter study data online.

The study builds on the work of a dedicated team of researchers at the institution that have already shown that an evaluation of AAA wall stress is superior to the standard method that uses aneurysm diameter to evaluate the aneurysm's risk of rupture. The aneurysm wall stress is obtained through a process that starts with a three-dimensional reconstruction of a patient's aneurysm based on computed tomographic (CT) imaging. The 3D reconstruction is further analyzed using finite element analysis software, based in part on the patient's blood pressure.

Metrx says the goal of the study is to establish better prediction rules for rupture risk of aortic aneurysms in the chest and abdomen. More than 500 patients will be recruited for the study from a variety of institutions monitoring patients with aortic aneurysms.

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