A groundbreaking way of measuring fluid buildup in the body allows chronic heart failure patients to monitor their condition and treat it independently with a physician-approved response.

Tel Aviv-based startup Vectorious has created a tiny pressure sensor that is implanted directly into the heart. It is the only sensor in the world that measures the pressure in the left atrium (one of the heart’s two upper chambers) and is able to identify increases in that pressure caused by a buildup of fluid in the body.

This data on the left atrial pressure (LAP) is then transmitted to an app for the patient and their doctor.

Fluid buildup occurs during heart failure deterioration and is caused when the heart can no longer effectively pump blood around the body. That fluid buildup, especially in the lungs, causes the pressure within the left atrium to increase – and it is this that Vectorious’ V-LAP device measures.

“With fluid overload, pretty much the entire system of the body starts to collapse, and the patient gets hospitalized again and again,” Gil Visokolov, Vectorious’ senior director of product, tells NoCamels.

Keep reading at nocamels.com.

Vectorious Medical Technologies Co-founder and CEO Dr. Eyal Orion is a Technion alumnus.