Precision diagnostics is the premise of scientific treatment. Microcirculation plays a crucial role in the supply and regulation of myocardial blood flow. It is a potential inducer and independent predictor of various types of coronary heart disease. The traditional method of microcirculation assessment has various limitations, which makes it impossible to be widely used in clinical practice. As one of the optimal ways to achieve precise diagnosis and treatment of vascular diseases, the diagnosis of coronary microcirculation dysfunctions has been clinically ignored due to the difficulty in assessment. To address this issue, RainMed Medical has pioneered the world's first non-invasive coronary microcirculation diagnosis system, caIMR, which has expanded non-invasive microcirculation diagnosis technology and brings new opportunities for the diagnosis and treatment of complex cardiovascular diseases in clinical practice.

From the proposal of the technology to its application, the caIMR system has continuously attracted the attention and research of top experts and scholars at home and abroad, and has continuously unlocked the potential clinical value of itself, providing a convenient and practical clinical indicator for the evaluation of high-risk pathogenic factors of coronary heart disease and the diagnosis of complex coronary artery diseases. Currently, with the increasing popularity of caIMR research, and abundant research results are continuously included in internationally renowned high-level SCI journals, laying a solid theoretical foundation for the large-scale application of caIMR. The following are the academic achievements of the caIMR system since the beginning of 2023, which involve the demonstration of the diagnostic performance of caIMR and the prediction and assessment of common types of diseases such as stable angina pectoris, acute myocardial infarction, dilated cardiomyopathy, and preserved ejection fraction heart failure. It is hoped that new ideas and diagnostic methods for clinical diagnosis and treatment of vascular diseases can be provided.

03 caIMR can provide an objective method of risk stratification for patients with DCM

Dilated cardiomyopathy (DCM) is linked to poor prognosis, and heart transplantation is often required. Currently, coronary angiography is the first choice to identify ischemic heart disease in the diagnostic work-up for the etiology assessment of DCM. Nevertheless, coronary angiography can only determine the ischemic myocardium caused by epicardial coronary artery stenosis, and investigation of microvascular disease is lacking in patients with DCM. A few studies have demonstrated the presence of coronary microvascular dysfunction (CMD) in patients with DCM. The degree of CMD also has a direct impact on the prognosis of the patient.

On March 15, 2023, Professor Xiangqing Kong's team from Jiangsu Province Hospital published a paper in JCR Q2 journal "Quantitative Imaging in Medicine and Surgery", confirming that RainMed Medical’s caIMR system can serve as an effective indicator for assessing the prognosis of patients with DCM, and provide objective risk stratification. The data showed that DCM is closely related to vascular microcirculatory dysfunction, and microcirculatory dysfunction are the main predictive factors for adverse events in these patients, indicating the need for active clinical diagnosis and treatment of microcirculatory dysfunction in patients with DCM.

This study is the first to evaluate the role of caIMR in patients with DCM. The study evaluated the diagnostic and therapeutic effects of commonly used drugs, devices, and therapies for dilated cardiomyopathy, and found that caIMR values can help provide risk stratification for patients and assist surgeons in targeted treatment, bringing more accurate and convenient treatment tools for patients with dilated cardiomyopathy.

Read the paper：https://doi.org/10.21037/qims-22-1060

04 The caIMR system can identify the risk of adverse events in HFpEF patients early and improve patients' survival rates and quality of life.

Heart failure with preserved ejection fraction (HFpEF) is a special type of heart failure for which there is currently no clear evidence-based treatment. It has high mortality and readmission rates. Early clinical studies have found that coronary microvascular dysfunction has a higher incidence rate in HFpEF patients and is associated with multiple severity-related indicators. Therefore, experts believe that timely identification of coronary microvascular dysfunction in HFpEF can prevent further deterioration of the disease and improve patient quality of life by identifying high-risk patients.

On April 20, 2023, Professor Wenliang Che's team from Shanghai Tenth People's Hospital published a paper in the JCR Q1 journal "Canadian Journal of Cardiology", exploring the prognostic significance of coronary microvascular dysfunction in HFpEF patients using the caIMR system from RainMed Medical. The study showed that the caIMR system can independently and accurately predict the risk of adverse events in HFpEF patients. It can be used as an early and alternative tool to evaluate heart failure patients, identify high-risk patients who may benefit from intensified treatment and risk factor management, and increase the survival rate of HFpEF patients.

This study validates for the first time the predictive value of the caIMR system in heart failure patients and emphasizes the importance of diagnosing coronary microvascular dysfunction in patients with HFpEF. In this process, the caIMR system can serve as a simple and efficient alternative tool to explore the microcirculation of patients, screen out HFpEF patients who can benefit from coronary microvascular treatment, and effectively test the effectiveness of diagnostic and therapeutic methods for microcirculation dysfunction.

Read the paper：https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cjca.2023.04.011