Agitated Solutions Inc.

About 25% of the adult population in the United States has a hole between the left and right atria in their hearts – a condition known as a patent foramen ovale (PFO) or atrial septal defect (ASD). PFO/ASDs have been associated with cryptogenic stroke (i.e., stroke without a known cause), with approximately 68% having a significantly higher presence of PFO/ASDs.

While therapeutic interventions exist to close the hole in the heart, these interventions are only indicated to prevent future strokes. Persons with PFO/ASD would likely benefit from an intervention that closes the PFO/ASD before they experience their first stroke. Unfortunately, these interventions carry their own significant risks as well as costs, and doctors prefer not to perform the intervention without an increased certainty that it will reduce the patient’s likelihood of stroke. Given the commonality of PFO/ASDs, the risks associated with closing them and the severity and high incidence of strokes, both patients and doctors would benefit from better diagnostic tools to identify patients in which PFO/ASD closure would be beneficial.

Today’s diagnostic tool uses transesophageal or transthoracic echocardiography imaging with agitated saline bubbles as contrast to detect PFO/ASDs. Agitated Solutions (ASI) — a Delaware corporation that strives to enhance the use of ultrasound to improve efficiency and clinical outcomes — desires to gain a better understanding of which data points, if captured, could serve to improve diagnosis and choice of treatment, and ultimately, dramatically improve patient outcomes.

Venn’s PRI to ASI will fund broader and deeper retroactive studies of echocardiography imaging and patient health histories to determine which data points are most important to collect as reliable predictors of stroke. If successful, the research will lay the foundation for further testing to strengthen the diagnostic tools available to identify patients in which PFO/ASD closure would be beneficial prior to having a stroke.